Shakespeare losing grip on US campuses

WASHINGTON: Shakespeare seems to be losing his grip on US university campuses just as he is strengthening it at movie theaters around the country, reports AFP.

Of 67 US1 colleges surveyed by the National Alumni Forum, only 23 require their English majors to take at least one Shakespeare course, according to the New York Times.

The report also says that some English majors can receive their diplomas without ever reading any of the Bard's 37 works.

it concludes that the study of “great authors” is being replaced by courses such as the one focusing on gangster movies at Georgetown University in Washington, on melodrama and soap operas at Duke University in North Carolina. And on boxing film and fiction at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire.

For students who feel compelled to get a dose of Shakespeare, they can simply go to their neighbourhood movie theater This winter, four Shakespeare movies including Rome and Juliet and Hamlet are playing nationwide.

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