The Wonders of Imagination: The Tempest and Its Spectators

Classical Tragedy and the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald: Why the Legend Lives On

“…In the case of contemporary readers, that safe distance is a span of 35 years. In his study of The Tempest , Jurgen Pieters suggests that readers of Shakespeare's play (which also includes a shipwreck) assume this role of witness. In the case of the Edmund Fitzgerald , anyone who watches a film or reads a book about the Edmund Fitzgerald is re‐enacting that wreck and experiencing the emotional crisis of the witness in a similar way.…”