The Shakespeare Wars
Join
us for a very special event with Ron Rosenbaum, author of The
Shakespeare Wars: Clashing Scholars, Public Fiascoes, Palace Coups.
On the eve of Shakespeare’s birthday, meet the author who gives readers
an unforgettable way of rethinking the greatest works of the human imagination.
As he did in his groundbreaking Explaining Hitler, he shakes up
much that we thought we understood about a vital subject and renews our
sense of excitement and urgency. Rosenbaum will share with the audience
the fierce cut and thrust of controversies among Shakespearean scholars
and directors on a number of questions vital to those who read and see
the works.
There is the question of revision, for instance: what kind of writer was Shakespeare—was he the one-draft wonder of “Shakespeare in Love” who sent a manuscript to the playhouse and then fell to wenching, or was a he a more serious reviser of his plays with revisions that change our way of thinking about his greatest works? We will discuss the two versions of Hamlet and Lear’s dying words, and what they tell us about these great plays and players. What is the proper way of speaking his iambic pentameter lines to draw most deeply from what is hidden within? What does Rosenbaum mean by “the terror of pleasure” Shakespeare evokes?
Ron Rosenbaum is the author of seven books; his work has appeared in Harper’s, The New Yorker, and The New York Times Magazine. A longtime columnist for The New York Observer, he now writes a bi-weekly culture column for Slate. His book Explaining Hitler has been translated into ten languages.
Ron Rosenbaum photo by Nina Roberts
Suggested
Donation: $5 ($3 for HVWC members and those under age 18)
Programs and events at The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center are made possible, in part, by grants from the Bydale Foundation, the David G. Taft Foundation, the Orchard Foundation, and the Thendara Foundation; with public funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State Agency, and the National Endowment for the Arts; and by the Basic Program Support Grant of the Westchester Arts Council with funds from Westchester County Government.