Roehampton University
Open Spaces. Open Minds.
Centre for Research in Renaissance Studies (CRRS)
Events
Wed 21 October, 1-2: Susanne Greenhalgh, ‘A stage of the mind: Hamlet spinoffs on post-war British radio’ (Duchesne 104). All Welcome
Wed 18 November, 5-6 pm: Lucy Munro (Keele University) '"Whylome as antique stories tellen vs": Archaism and the Literary Tradition in Early Modern England' (Duchesne 101). All Welcome
Past Events
Hamlet After Arden 3
Postgraduate Study Day, Thursday 11 June, 2009.Over the years successive Arden Shakespeare editions have reflected and sometimes prompted key changes in the editing, interpretation and performance of the works. This study day examined current perceptions of Hamlet following publication of the Third Series edition by Ann Thompson and Neil Taylor, together with new directions in critical interpretation and research on the play’s afterlives.
The day was also a celebration of Professor Taylor’s contribution to the University’s research culture.
Speakers:
- Graham Holderness David Ruiter
- Neil Taylor Ann Thompson
- Elaine Showalter P.A. Skantze
Postgraduate students and staff from Roehampton, Royal Holloway, University of Texas at El Paso, and University of Connecticut were treated to a rich day of papers by noted Shakespearean scholars.
Neil Taylor wittily reviewed the reviews of the new Arden edition, characterising the editing of Shakespeare as acts of faith or agnosticism. Gabriel Egan responded by pointing out some of the issues raised by the editors’ decision to treat the three extant texts of Hamlet as separate works, rather than creating a conflated version, as did the previous Arden edition. David Ruiter linked the themes of hospitality and the welcoming of strangers in Hamlet to theatrical representations of immigration and multiculturalism in contemporary Britain, while P.A. Skantze gave a lively account of the New York-based Wooster Group’s production of Hamlet, emphasising the need to pay attention to the aural dimensions of performance.
In the afternoon session on ‘Afterlives’ Ann Thompson highlighted the frequency and variety of fictional and theatrical sequels and prequels inspired by the play, often turning attention to characters such as Gertrude, Horatio and Ophelia.. This last topic was continued by Elaine Showalter, who, after reflecting on the ways her groundbreaking 1985 essay on Ophelia, madness, and feminist criticism could be ‘dated’ in terms of the critical agendas of the time, traced the recent phenomenon of teen romances which feature an Ophelia who avoids madness and suicide to achieve a more or less happy ending. In conclusion, Graham Holderness returned to the themes of faith and scepticism with which the day began, by illuminating the ways in which the subjectivity represented by the character of Hamlet was grounded in early modern perceptions of interiority derived both from theological writings and the physicality of the body.
HAMLET AFTER ARDEN 3
Postgraduate Study Day
Centre for Research in Renaissance Studies
PROGRAMME
SESSION ONE: EDITING (10.15.-11.45.)
- Neil Taylor: ‘The Agnostic’s Tragedy: Editing Hamlet in the Age of Dawkins’
- Gabriel Egan: 'A response to the three-text Arden3 Hamlet'
SESSION 2: INTERPRETATIONS (11.45.-1.00.)
- David Ruiter: ‘England People and a very nice Hamlet’’
- P.A. Skantze: ‘Hamlet after Wooster One’
SESSION 3: AFTERLIVES (1.45.-4.45.)
- Ann Thompson: ‘Looking before and after: prequels and sequels to Hamlet’
- Elaine Showalter: ‘Dating Hamlet in the 21st Century’
- Graham Holderness: ‘Hamlet’s heart: Shakespeare and Subjectivity’