Treacherous Secret Agent

Marjorie Garber is the William R. Kenan, Jr., Research Professor of English and of Visual and Environmental Studies at Harvard University. She is the author of twenty books, including Shakespeare in Bloomsbury. She lives in London, UK.

“Enlightening. . . . Some of Garber’s best chapters unpack moments . . . when a literary reference pops into the public record and reveals a hidden pocket of historical meaning.”—A. O. Scott, New York Times“The great pleasure of A Treacherous Secret Agent lies in its faith that literature gets the last word.”—Charlie Tyson, The Atlantic“In this dazzling, absorbing, entertaining, and erudite book, Marjorie Garber shows once again why she is one of our most insightful and inventive cultural critics. She finds totally unexpected ways of making literature always timely and always dangerous to those who want to shut down artistic expression.”—Lynn Hunt, author of History: Why It Matters“No one but Marjorie Garber could produce this amusing and timely book. Garber combs through the records of the investigations, and her unexpected coupling of the House Un-American Activities Committee with Shakespeare reveals a treacherous Shakespeare who effectively mocks the investigators.”—Jonathan Culler, Cornell University“In this scintillatingly staged confrontation with the Red Scare bullies, it’s the old books that have all the best lines. Some are real zingers. Literature gets a well-deserved revenge.”—Bruce Robbins, author of Who’s Allowed to Protest?“In Marjorie Garber’s expert hands, Shakespeare becomes a key to unlock the anxieties of the HUAC era—and maybe our own. A smart, shrewd book.”—William Germano, Cooper Union“As artists, writers, and performers come under attack from the forces of authoritarianism, we can take heart from Marjorie Garber’s witty and perceptive account of how cultural warriors resisted McCarthyism.”—Ellen Schrecker, coeditor of The Right to Learn: Resisting the Right-Wing Attack on Academic Freedom“With the U.S. regressing to McCarthyism (or worse), Garber makes a bracing case for literature as a treacherous secret agent, taking ‘poetic revenge’ on the scoundrels who, as she shows, are right to fear it.”—Joseph Litvak, The Un-Americans: Jews, the Blacklist, and Stoolpigeon Culture