Jeffrey R. Wilson, Harvard University
April 23rd
Time/Location: To be Determined

Shakespeare, we have been told, is extremely important. You may agree or disagree, but do you know why Shakespeare matters to so many people in so many ways? Why, of all the dead white male options, did England take Shakespeare as its literary figurehead? Why does every high school in America assign Shakespeare? Why so many conspiracy theories about who wrote the plays? Why did the British government decide to pay £1.5 million to have his works translated into Mandarin? Why do cultures around the world with no love for England keep coming back to Shakespeare? In this talk, Shakespeare lovers and haters alike are invited to consider the question of his popularity by looking into the relationship between his methods of artistic creation and the values of the modern world. 

Jeffrey R. Wilson is a Shakespeare scholar at Harvard University and editor-in-chief of Public Humanities, a new journal from Cambridge University Press. He is the author of three books: Shakespeare and Trump, Shakespeare and Game of Thrones, and Richard III’s Bodies from Medieval England to Modernity: Shakespeare and Disability History. Recent articles include “Justice for Hamlet”; “Shakespeare Across the Disciplines”; and “Businesses Have a Lot to Learn From the Impromptu ‘Teaming’ That Happens in Theater”.