Searching for Hamlet
ENGL 4603
Sara Coodin, Department of Classics and Letters
Su Fang Ng, Department of English
Is Hamlet a political thriller or a psychological drama? If Hamlet has a psyche, does he also have a body? Can early modern humoral theory help us account for that body, or is the actor’s body more vital for locating the “real” Hamlet? Through these and other questions, we will challenge ourselves to think and rethink the most renowned work of fiction written in the English language, exploring the diverse, often contradictory ways that Hamlet has been read, performed, and interpreted over its 400-year long history. “Searching for Hamlet” examines Hamlet’s enduring hold on our collective imagination, from its early modern origins through adaptations on the 18th century stage to modern and postmodern engagements in the West and globally. A series of world-renowned experts will join us to lead discussions and offer public lectures, including Terri Bourus (Indiana University/Purdue University Indianapolis), Michael Bristol (McGill University), and Emma Smith (Oxford University).
Public Lecture Series
The Departments of Classics and Letters and English present a public lecture series in conjunction with the Presidential Dream Course. Presentations are free and open to the public. For information or accommodation to events on the basis of disability, contact Sara Coodin, coodin@ou.edu or Su Fang Ng, ngsf@ou.edu.
Enter Young Shakespeare [meeting Young Hamlet]
Wednesday, February 1, 2017
5:00pm - 7:00pm
Oklahoma Memorial Union, Heritage Room
View Course Flyer [PDF]
Terri Bourus
Professor of English, Indiana University Indianapolis
Terri Bourus is a Professor of English Drama at Indiana University Indianapolis where she teaches Shakespeare, Theatre History, and early modern drama. She is the director of The New Oxford Shakespeare editing project and Founding Artistic Director of Hoosier Bard Productions. She is one of four General Editors of the prestigious New Oxford Shakespeare: The Complete Works. Dr. Bourus is an equity actor who has performed in and/or directed, American musical theatre, modern Irish drama, and in many early modern productions, especially Shakespeare. She has edited A Midsummer Night's Dream and Hamlet for the Sourcebook Shakespeare series and has published widely on Shakespeare and theatre history, and book history. She is in huge demand as a theatre reviewer and is the Midwest Associate Editor for ReviewingShakespeare.com. Dr. Bourus's 2014 monograph, Young Shakespeare's Young Hamlet tackles the question of Q1 Hamlet, on the page and on the stage.
Hamlet’s Black African Journey: From Primer to Political Thriller in Just One Episode
Wednesday, March 22, 2017
5:00pm - 7:00pm
Oklahoma Memorial Union, Heritage Room
View Course Flyer [PDF]
Arthur L. Little, Jr.
Associate Professor of English, University of California at Los Angeles
Arthur L. Little, Jr., is an associate professor in the English Department at UCLA. He received his bachelor’s degree from Northwestern University and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Harvard University. His research focuses on Shakespeare and early modern race studies as well as issues of gender and sexuality. He is the author of Shakespeare Jungle Fever: National-Imperial Re-Visions of Race, Rape, and Sacrifice (Stanford, 2000) and Shakespeare and Race Theory (forthcoming, Bloomsbury Arden Shakespeare). He is also the editor of the soon-to-be-published essay collection White People in Shakespeare. Also in progress is a monograph entitled, Black Hamlet: Disciplining Race, Memory, and the Geno-Performative. In addition to these works, Professor Little has published numerous articles and has lectured widely both nationally and internationally. His most recent publication appears in Shakespeare Quarterly: “Re-Historicizing Race, White Melancholia, and the Shakespearean Property” (2016). He is also general editor of Palgrave’s Signs of Race/Early Modern Race Studies series.
Hamlet the Dame: or, what happens to women in Hamlet?
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
5:00pm - 7:00pm
Oklahoma Memorial Union, Heritage Room
View Course Flyer [PDF]
Emma Smith
Professor of Shakespeare Studies, University of Oxford
Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at the University of Oxford, and the author of a number of works on Shakespeare and reception. Most recently she has published a biography of the first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, the 1623 First Folio (Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book, Oxford University Press, 2016). She has lectured widely and many of her lectures on Shakespeare and other early modern dramatists are available on iTunesU.
