Schedule / Horaire
Thursday 24 April 2014, 15h30-17h30.
Room: V106B.
Leader / Organisatrice
Rachel Rodman, Durham, NC (USA)
Participants
- Chiara Battisti, University of Verona (Italy)
Richard III and disability studies - Natalia Brzozowska, Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland)
Merging the biological and the social – the relationship between age,‘choler’ and status in William Shakespeare’s King Lear and Romeo and Juliet - John F. Maune, Hokusei Gakuen University (Japan)
With Love’s Light Wings: Romeo and Juliet in a Life Science Classroom - Nahid Mohammadi, Alzahra University (Iran)
The Ecology of Human and Nonhuman Nature in Shakespeare: A Reading of Four Elements - Rachel Rodman, Durham, NC (USA)
Biology through Shakespeare - Lauren Shohet, Villanova University (USA)
Floral Networks - Michael A. Winkelman, Owens Tech (USA)
‘To Preserve This Vessel’: Jealousy, Evolution, and Othello
Abstracts / Résumés
1. Chiara Battisti, University of Verona (Italy)
Richard III and disability studies
My paper aims at analysing Richard III through the perspective of disability studies,
exploring questions concerning the extent to which bodily experiences and physical diseases are constructed or mediated by society and culture. Richard III has been read productively through the lens of his body, which has been connected with the turbulent English history, a monstrous political figure who usurps the throne, and a demonstration of Renaissance beliefs about the continuity between inner morality and outward physical forms. This paper will analyse the more complex relationship between Richard’s physical deformed body and his audience within and outside the play.
2. Natalia Brzozowska, Adam Mickiewicz University (Poland)
Merging the biological and the social – the relationship between age,‘choler’ and status in William Shakespeare’s King Lear and Romeo and Juliet
The aim is to demonstrate how the Galenic approach to choler can be supplemented with
the sociological status and power theory of emotions (Kemper) in the analysis of the anger of Shakespeare’s youths (Tybalt, Romeo and Juliet) and the elderly (King Lear). Lear rages against a legitimate loss of power and status, however, others see his actions as those of a senile choleric. Tybalt (as a young man) is considered naturally prone to outbursts of anger, yet must show restraint when admonished by the more powerful (and older) Capulet. The dynamics between the issues of social hierarchy and the humour will be explored.
3. John F. Maune, Hokusei Gakuen University (Japan)
With Love’s Light Wings: Romeo and Juliet in a Life Science Classroom
Romeo and Juliet is used to teach various theories of love and other human behaviors in a biology class for Japanese English majors. The play is rife with excellent, poignant examples that students grasp intuitively, not by the book. A few examples include Romeo’s feelings for Rosaline and Juliet, Juliet’s concerns about Romeo’s intentions, and Mercutio’s and Tybalt’s fiery tempers; these illustrate the hormones implicated in love, female mate selection, and aggression in males and kin selection. Romeo and Juliet always engages the students and piques their interest leading to active learning and better understanding of the subject matter.
4. Nahid Mohammadi, Alzahra University (Iran)
The Ecology of Human and Nonhuman Nature in Shakespeare: A Reading of Four Elements
My research articulates this new eco-literary hypothesis that human and nonhuman agencies of nature are in correspondence. This correspondence can be defined in terms of the four elements—earth, water, air, and fire—which are included both in the environment and in human. Through this ancient elemental ecosystem, I explain ‘why disordered human nature causes a disorder in the environment.’ In Shakespeare, there are many examples which reflect this correspondence: ambition in Macbeth causes murder and distrust in Othello brings about the violation of another soul.
5. Rachel Rodman, Durham, NC (USA)
Biology through Shakespeare
In this presentation, I outline several creative projects, aimed at incorporating themes from Shakespeare and modern biology. I focus on an academic course, “Biology through Shakespeare,” which uses art-science metaphors to frame a series of introductory biology lectures. I in addition describe a new class of biology-based writing exercises, enabling students to draft their own creative fiction, using Shakespeare’s verse as raw material.
6. Lauren Shohet, Villanova University (USA)
Floral Networks
This paper examines constellations of botanical entities, human subjects, rhetorical tropes, and literary genres from angles that do not assume the priority of the human subject. A Midsummer Nights Dream, Hamlet, The Winters Tale, and Pericles reimagine tropes usually taken as figurative play in service of performative human self-realization as instead instigators and propagators of formal traditions. Flowers serve as a node where nature and culture, given and created, human and non-human, hybridize in all directions. Can we see the Shakespearean stage as an iteration of natural systems that “brim . . . with meanings not of our making” (Pollan 2001: 69)?
7. Michael A. Winkelman, Owens Tech (USA)
‘To Preserve This Vessel’: Jealousy, Evolution, and Othello
Though everyone agrees jealousy is the theme of Shakespeare’s Othello, critics have tended to neglect or misunderstand its significance. The Moor’s infuriated reaction, however, makes sense in light of evolutionary biology, the fundamental explanation for life on Earth—including that branch of hominid primate mammals known as Homo sapiens. My paper explains Darwin’s theory of sexual selection, plus the Biochemistry and genetics involved, and then analyzes Othello’s natural apprehension over the threat of cuckoldry, especially in Act 4, scene 2. In the conclusion, I contend that such a New Humanist approach can help elucidate what makes the tragedy a masterpiece.