ABSTRACT
Shakespeare, Chaucer, and Milton were the grand triumvirate of the British examining boards and traditional degree courses. Changing times and in particular the emphasis of new critical directions emanating from the United States of America seemed to threaten this, and the situation at universities is still very fluid. In particular, authors such as Shakespeare, Milton and Chaucer have been seen as typical of the ‘Dead White European Males’ who were perceived as having dominated academia (and much more) for far too long. In 1992 The Daily Telegraph ran a story stating that the black American woman novelist Alice Walker had become a compulsory author in more higher education institutions than Shakespeare. However, new UK Government policies and the creation of a ‘core’ for A-level English meant that Shakespeare became a compulsory author, and traditional authors such as Chaucer and Milton received positive discrimination. There are therefore difficult and sometimes contradictory cross-currents at work at the present time. The fact that the listeners to a leading national radio programme voted Shakespeare the most influential individual of the millennium shows that both he and other traditionally revered authors have strong populist support.
