Shakespeare in the Bush

The general argument/point made by Laura Bohannan in her work Shakespeare in the Bush is that cultural or historical background does play a role in how a story or a piece of art etc. is perceived. More specifically, Bohannan argues/suggests that through her own experience of arguing with a friend that there is universal understanding, she discovered that by trying to tell the story of hamlet to natives in Africa that she was studying, they had there own views and interpretation of the story that made it difficult for her to describe her perception of the story. She literally thought that everyone would understand it the same. She writes, “I protested that human nature is pretty much the same the whole world over; at least the general plot and motivation of the greater tragedies would always be clear—everywhere—although some details of custom might have to be explained and difficulties of translation might produce other slight changes.” (page 29) In this passage, Bohannan is suggesting that she felt like motivation and plot could be understood by everyone universally with very slight changes, but she came to find out that this wasn’t true while trying to explain Hamlet to the TIV tribal culture. She was proven wrong because of they way they interpreted it. Sometimes her interpretation didn’t make any sense to the others because it wasn’t something they had ever heard of. In conclusion, it is Bohannan’s belief now that it is very difficult to explain the plot and the tragedies to those of other cultures and ethnic backgrounds.

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In my view, Bohannan is steered toward the right because of her experience. Various interpretations can be made between people with different backgrounds and history. For example, a thumbs up in America means “good job” but in other countries it has different, sometimes inappropriate meanings. Although Bohannan had objected that cultures view different stories and plots, I maintain that her experience in another country with people she had never spoken with before changed her own opinion. Therefore, I conclude that Bohannan discovered that people should realize the differences in cultures to clear up misunderstandings in writing, art, and symbols.