Annual Shakespeare lecture to explore tragedy in his time and ours

Was Shakespeare a lone genius or a product of his time? Are his tragedies timeless or time-bound? Can they be interpreted in a way that speaks to the social realities of our own time?"

Such questions will be explored in next month’s Hood Fellow/Alice Griffin Shakespeare Lecture at The University of Auckland. Jean Howard, the George Delacorte Professor in the Humanities at Columbia University, New York City, will deliver “Shakespeare and the Tragedy of His Time and Ours”.

The lecture will examine Shakespearean tragedy in relation to that of his contemporaries, as well as the question of “timelessness”. Professor Howard will discuss how our modern concepts of Shakespearean tragedy were formed, historically, and why Shakespeare has continued to be so central to contemporary conceptions of what tragedy is.

Professor Howard counters the notion that Shakespearean tragedy is “timeless”. Instead, she posits, his writing in this genre reflects some of the ways he was deeply rooted in the modes of thought of his own period and, rather than a lone genius, owed much as a writer of tragedy to the work of his contemporaries.

“We are still often caught in the bind of thinking of Shakespearean tragedy as timeless when in fact it is very much time-bound,” says Professor Howard. “In other words, there is a very specific origin to the way we make sense of literary form that in the early modern period may well have been understood differently. This is partly because the early modern concept of ‘the individual’ was different from modern notions of the individual and his or her relation to social structures.”

The relationship between contemporary and historic tragedy will also be explored. Professor Howard says today’s “cataclysmic” times call for the resources that tragedy has often seemed to provide — a way to analyse and understand what can be simply described as “the worst”. The lecture will specifically ask, “Can we remake Shakespearean tragedy so that, rather than locked in a notion of the timeless, it can speak to our time?”

“It is a privilege to host Jean Howard as this year’s Alice Griffin Fellow as well as a Hood Fellow.” says Head of English Professor Tom Bishop, “Her work is internationally important, and I am sure any reader of Shakespeare will be keen to hear her discuss his tragedies and their relation to his time and ours.”

The Dr Alice Griffin Fellowship in Shakespearean Studies was established thanks to the generosity of Mr John Griffin, in the name of his mother, Dr Alice Griffin, a Shakespearean scholar in the United States.

Professor Jean Howard will deliver the Alice Griffin/Hood lecture “Shakespeare and the Tragedy of His Time and Ours” on Thursday 21 August at 6pm in the Old Government House Lecture Theatre. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The University of Auckland Hood Fellowships are generously supported by the Lion Foundation.
Contact:

Amber Older, Communications Adviser
Ph (09) 373 7599 ext 83257 or 021 942 677
a.older@auckland.ac.nz