Williamston Theatre: Shakespearean Drama, the Plague Years, and Consolations for Today

Williamston Theatre: Shakespearean Drama, the Plague Years, and Consolations for Today

When:
April 23, 2021 @ 3:00 pm
2021-04-23T15:00:00-04:00
2021-04-23T15:15:00-04:00
Cost:
Free
Contact:
Williamston Theatre

Williamston Theatre: Free Zoom Lecture and Q&A Session
Shakespearean Drama, the Plague Years, and Consolations for Today

Friday, April 23, 2021 at 3pm
Presented by MSU Professor Jyotsna G. Singh

Celebrate the Bard’s Birthday with us! William Shakespeare lived and wrote his great works during the periodic outbreaks of the Plague in England, often called the “Pestilence.” For example, from 1592-1603, London authorities frequently shut the playhouses. People fled the city and often bodies piled up on the streets. The plays and poetry Shakespeare wrote during these times evoke the beauty and fragility of life amidst contagion and breakdown. What can we learn from his works today in our own period of lockdown and contagion?  What consolations can we find in Shakespeare’s poetic reflections today?

Zoom information will be posted the day before the lecture.

Professor Jyotsna G. Singh

Jyotsna G. Singh is a Professor in the Department of English at MSU, where she teaches and researches early English modern literature and culture, including Shakespeare, travel writing, postcolonial theory, and gender and race studies. Her published work includes: The Weyward Sisters: Shakespeare and Feminist Politics (Blackwell), (co-authored); Colonial Narratives/Cultural Dialogues: ‘Discovery’ of India in the Language of Colonialism (Routledge); and A Companion to the Global Renaissance, ed. and Shakespeare and Postcolonial Theory. She has been awarded several visiting fellowships, most recently, at St Catherine’s College, Oxford University. UK (2019.) Ms. Singh serves on the board of the Williamston Theatre.