Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Conaway to discuss "Shakespeare's Shrewish Voice"
 Dr. Charles Conaway, assistant professor of English, will present the final College of Liberal Arts Faculty Colloquium on Friday, April 24.Conaway will present "Shakespeare’s Shrewish Voice: Constructing Literary and Cultural Authority on the Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Stage." His research analyzes the circulation of Shakespeare’s literary and cultural authority during the Restoration and Eighteenth Century. A number of influential scholars have shown how Shakespeare was fashioned into England’s National Poet during this period. “By revising Shakespeare’s plays - most importantly, his history plays and mature tragedies - adapters of the era made Shakespeare’s sensibilities match their own,” Conaway wrote in an abstract. “That is, Shakespeare’s plays were altered, edited, performed, and interpreted in ways that reinforced England’s sense of its own greatness, particularly as that greatness was manifesting itself in England’s emerging empire.” Conaway’s work focuses on what he calls the “seamier underbelly” of Shakespeare’s canon, the comedies. “Beginning with the assumption that adaptations of the comedies might not have all that much to do with setting up Shakespeare as England’s National Poet, and focusing specifically on numerous adaptations of The Taming of the Shrew, I argue that adapters of Shakespeare’s play exploit the unresolved efforts to contain class and gender unruliness in Shrew in order to intervene in debates about class and gender politics in their own place and time, and in order to construct, not Shakespeare’s, but their own literary and theatrical authority. “Such adaptations, then, are not primarily interested in exalting Shakespeare, but his literary and cultural authority is nevertheless affected in sometimes unexpected ways as by-products of the various adapters’ more immediate interests. The adaptations of Shrew, I argue, often deliberately nag or inadvertently trouble dominant cultural attitudes. In so doing, we can say that they make Shakespeare speak shrewishly.” For more information, contact Dr. Wes Durham, coordinator of the Colloquia and assistant professor of communication studies, at 812/464-1739 or wdurham@usi.edu. Wendy Knipe Bredhold News & Information Services 812/461-5259 or wkbredhold@usi.edu |
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