Thursday 24th November 2011

Dr. Raphael Lyne (Cambridge University): 'The Shakespearean Grasp: Hands and Brains in the Theatre'

This paper suggests a cognitive approach to holding hands in Shakespeare. In a number of plays (as diverse as Coriolanus and The Comedy of Errors) he seems to manage touch very carefully. I will turn to the ways cognitive scientists think about how we watch touch, and how watched touches come to mean something, to try to unfold more of how such moments work.

http://www.english.cam.ac.uk/people/Lyne/Raphael/

Thursday 20th October 2011

Professor Thomas Docherty (English and Comparative Literary Studies): 'Celtic Shakespeare'

Thomas Docherty gave a personal, idiosyncratic narrative to his first encounter with Shakespeare from a Scottish perspective. Referring to his own spikey response to Shakespeare as a child, he raised questions about the ownership of language and the cultural authority of Shakespeare. He mapped some marvellous and unexpected connections between A Midsummer Night's Dream, school, football, and economic and intellectual capital.

A version of this paper will be published in Shakespeare and I edited by Theodora Papadopoulou and William McKenzie published by Continuum and available from 7 June 2012.

See: http://www.continuumbooks.com/books/detail.aspx?BookId=158042&SubjectId=997

5.30pm. Humanities Building, H.545