> Perhaps the most miraculous thing about Shakespeare is that, through the accidents of history, he’s come to form a global point of reference.

Is he really a "global point of reference"? I'm not at all confident I could drop a reference to, say, Macbeth or Hamlet when dealing with people from India or China. Using the high-points of American popular culture like Luke Skywalker or Superman seems a lot safer.

I'd be interested to hear from folks from outside the Anglosphere on this point.