The politics of Macbeth: disrupting ‘foul play’ in the high school English language arts classroom through rhizomatic bricolage & autoethnography

Abstract

This thesis examines how Shakespeare’s Macbeth might be taught in ways that consider and disrupt unequal relations of power in the play itself, in curricula, and in society. Using rhizoanalysis, bricolage, and autoethnographic methodologies, this study critically examines the play itself, the Atlantic Canada English language arts curriculum guide for grades 10 -12, and the researcher’s instructional experiences related to teaching the play. The work asks how the application of post structural, critical, and feminist theories to the teaching of Macbeth might work to disrupt normativity in the classroom and beyond, and considers how teachers of English language arts might cultivate educational praxis that transforms the literature classroom into an emancipatory site.