by Greg Richter
A new academic claim circulating online that William Shakespeare was actually a black Jewish woman is drawing skepticism and ridicule, with critics calling it a textbook case of ideology-driven historical revisionism.
The argument appeared in a January 16 post on Media@LSE, a blog affiliated with the London School of Economics, previewing an upcoming book asserting that Shakespeare’s plays were written by Emilia Bassano, a poet and court musician active in early 17th-century England.
The author argues that Bassano was of Jewish heritage and possibly North African descent, and that she concealed her authorship behind a male pseudonym to survive in what the article characterizes as a racist and sexist literary culture. The claim is framed not merely as a question of authorship, but as an act of cultural recovery meant to challenge what is described as a historically “white, male” canon.
Notably absent from the argument, however, is any new documentary evidence. Instead, the article relies heavily on contemporary academic theory, invoking thinkers such as Michel Foucault and Gayatri Spivak to argue that authorship itself is a social construct shaped by power and exclusion. In this framework, the lack of direct proof becomes part of the thesis.
The response from outside progressive academic circles has been harsh.
British commentator Alex Armstrong dismissed the claim as “absurd” on GB News, arguing that it reflects modern ideological fashion rather than historical scholarship. Online responses have ranged from disbelief to open mockery, with critics comparing the theory to past fringe claims that have failed to gain traction.
Shakespeare’s authorship has been challenged mulitple times, though none of the alternatives has displaced the scholarly consensus. Among the most frequently cited theories are:
- Francis Bacon, the philosopher and statesman, whose supporters argue the plays display elite legal and scientific knowledge.
- Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford, an aristocrat whose education and courtly life are said to align with the plays’ settings.
- Christopher Marlowe, whose advocates claim he faked his death and continued writing under another name.
- William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby, a nobleman with documented theatrical interests.
- Collaborative or “committee” theories, suggesting multiple writers contributed to the canon.
None of these theories has persuaded mainstream scholars, who point instead to contemporaneous references to Shakespeare as a playwright, business records tying him to the London theater world, and the absence of credible evidence pointing elsewhere.
Fact-checkers have also have rejected the Bassano claim. An analysis by Australian Associated Press FactCheck notes that while Bassano was a real, published poet, best known for her 1611 work Salve Deus Rex Judaeorum, there is no documentary basis for attributing Shakespeare’s plays to her.
EA Daily emphasizes that Shakespeare scholars overwhelmingly regard the theory as speculative and unsupported, putting it within a tradition of authorship claims driven more by dissatisfaction with the past than by evidence.