Four Shakespeare Scholars to Share Insights at “Shakespeare: Inside and Outside”

Annual Colloquium Scheduled for October 28, 2006, on Fairleigh Dickinson University's College at Florham Campus, Madison, NJ (September 27, 2006). The sessions, which are free and open to the public, will run from 9:30 a.m. - 3:30 p.m. The speakers this year are Corrine S. Abate, Celestine Woo, Elizabeth Mazzola and June Schlueter.

Corrine S. Abate will ask, “‘What is Love?’ in Twelfth Night.” She will explore the premise that the entire play is concerned with answering that question, focusing particularly on the power of non-sexual relationships among the characters. Abate edited a collection of essays entitled Privacy, Domesticity, and Women in Early Modern England (Ashgate 2003), and has published articles on Henry V, The Merchant of Venice, The Taming of the Shrew and Measure for Measure. She holds a doctorate from New York University and is on the faculty at the Morristown-Beard School.

Celestine Woo is Assistant Professor of English at Empire State College in Westchester, New York, where she teaches courses in Shakespeare, British Romantics, Bible as Literature and children’s literature. She will lead a session focusing on the cross-dressed performances of Hamlet by 18th Century British actress Sarah Siddons—who played the role nine times over thirty years in a manner that was neither conventionally male nor female—and will discuss the gender implications of her choosing the role. Woo holds a doctorate from New York University and is a dancer, choreographer and published poet.

Elizabeth Mazzola will speak on “Women’s Wealth and Shakespeare’s Women,” exploring the peculiar nature and transmission of women’s wealth. She will focus on what women might share with or among themselves, arguing that maternal legacies not only enrich daughters, but also drive Shakespeare’s stories about them. Mazzola is author of The Pathology of the English Renaissance (Brill 1998), a study of Reformation Poetics, and Favorite Sons (Palgrave 2003), a study of the Sidney family. She has published essays on Milton, Mary Stuart, Edmund Spenser and Shakespeare and teaches at City College-CUNY.

June Schlueter, Charles A. Dana Professor of English at Lafayette College, will lead a session on “Facing Shakespeare,” a discussion about the image of Shakespeare. While most people think they recognize images of Shakespeare when they see them in books or on t-shirts, Schlueter notes that our actual evidence about his appearance is limited. Examining six portraits, an engraving, a funeral bust and a death mask, all created during his lifetime or shortly after, she sifts through the evidence. Schlueter is author or editor of 14 books on Shakespeare, the Renaissance and modern drama. She most recently co-edited (with Paul Nelsen) Acts of Criticism: Performance Matters in Shakespeare and His Contemporaries, a festschrift for James P. Lusardi.

The colloquium will be held in room S-11 of the Science Building on FDU’s College at Florham campus, 285 Madison Avenue in Madison, NJ. Registration is not required but is strongly encouraged.

For more information contact the project director, Harry Keyishian, at 973-443-8714 or harry_keyishian@fdu.edu. Donations for these free programs are welcome. Checks made out to FDU-Shakespeare may be sent to Dr. Harry Keyishian, M-MS03-01, Fairleigh Dickinson University, 285 Madison Avenue, Madison, NJ 07940.