Forum and intensive lectures at Nanjing University

"Shakespeare and the question of representation" /
KAWAI Shoichiro (English theater and literature, University of Tokyo)

This class at first starts with two phrases from Shakespeare's Hamlet, "theater is a mirror of nature" and "seeing with the eyes of the soul" to speak about the differences between objective and subjective truth that the difference between the eye of the camera and the eye of the heart, and will then proceed to a discussion of the differences between realism and Shakespearian theater. Looking through the lens of modern drama, Shakespearian Theater seems to look differrent from its original shape. As a text will produce misunderstandings if it is read removed from the cultural context it was produced in, I will reflect on the importance of "culture" and the "author" which exist "outside of the text". In other words, the era where the "death of the author" was proclaimed is over.

1) "Eyes of the heart" in “Hamlet”

2) Renaissance-like anamorphosis

3) Theater as "mirror" - the difference of the theatrical mode.

4) Cultural difference of the principle of plays

5) Problems of authorship, or who wrote the plays

6) What is a text, what is an author and the issue of biographies

References
＊William Shakespeare, Hamlet
＊Jurgis Baltrusaitis, Anamorphic Art
＊Stephen Greenblatt, Will In The World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare
＊Peter Ackryod, Shakespeare: The Biography
＊Samuel Schoenbaum, Shakespeare: A Documentary Life
＊John Michell, Who Wrote Shakespeare?
＊Skakespeare (translated by Shoichiro Kawai), Shinyaku Hamuretto, Kadokawa Bunko
＊Stephen Greenblatt, The story of Shakespeare’s phenomenal success (translated by Shoichiro Kawai)