{"id":1045,"date":"2018-04-04T22:11:28","date_gmt":"2018-04-04T22:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/160-the-words\/?page_id=1045"},"modified":"2024-08-06T17:44:38","modified_gmt":"2024-08-06T17:44:38","slug":"speaking-with-a-scholar-shakespeares-lyric-stage-and-a-conversation-with-seth-lerer","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/the-words-april-2018\/speaking-with-a-scholar-shakespeares-lyric-stage-and-a-conversation-with-seth-lerer\/","title":{"rendered":"Speaking with a Scholar: \u201cShakespeare\u2019s Lyric Stage\u201d and a Conversation with Seth Lerer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Isabel Taylor \u201921<\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"Seth<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The English Department recently had the honor of hosting Seth Lerer, a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California \u2013 San Diego. Professor Lerer gave a guest talk at the most recent first thursday workshop, made an appearance at Treat Night the day before, and even visited Professor Penelope Geng\u2019s Shakespeare classes. Fittingly, the topic of Professor Lerer\u2019s first thursday talk was \u201cShakespeare\u2019s Lyric Stage: Music, Myth and Metamorphosis in the Late Plays.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Treat Night was a casual affair, with students gathered in the fourth floor lounge of Old Main. As Professor Geng prompted questions, Professor Lerer spoke on an eclectic mix of subjects\u2014from the history of pet ownership to the bias of citations, to the daily struggle of us English majors\u2014namely, using said majors to get a job after graduation. Professor Lerer also spoke of his own background as a son of immigrants, and of the less career-focused years of his study at Wesleyan University. Professor Lerer\u2019s background in critical theory came in handy as he examined the colonial roots of the Oxford English Dictionary. He also probed the room with questions, asking such stumpers as, \u201cWhat makes you happy?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"first<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

At the first thursday presentation, Professor Lerer proved as apt at lecture as conversation. Pacing around the Harmon Room, he asked us to consider the literary criticism of an Elizabethan lutist who was struggling with the motives and demands of artistry. This struggle, Professor Lerer explained, was brought to bear in the character of Ariel from Shakespeare\u2019s <\/span>The<\/span><\/i> Tempest<\/span><\/i>. The \u201cmetamorphosis\u201d was explained through a worker bee metaphor that appeared in both a poem about the lutist and a speech Ariel gave. Professor Lerer\u2019s background in comparative literature was apparent as he deftly tied together these media in a compelling lecture. Throughout the presentation, his joking provoked raucous laughter from the crowd. <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am lucky enough to be enrolled in Professor Geng\u2019s Shakespeare class, which Professor Lerer visited to talk about <\/span>Othello<\/span><\/i>, our current play of study. During the class, Professors Lerer and Geng carried on a joint seminar, occasionally playing devil\u2019s advocate to each other. After a few readings, Professor Lerer asked us to consider the romantic nature of Othello\u2019s character, especially how Shakespeare made early modern audiences fall in love with the character despite\u2014or perhaps because of\u2014his \u201cotherness.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout Professor Lerer\u2019s visit, his audiences in the English Department were excited to hear him speak. Thank you to everyone who attended Professor Lerer\u2019s talks. Even though we all appreciated the pizza at Treat Night and the soup at first thursday, everyone who attended knows that Professor Lerer\u2019s presence was the real treat.<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Isabel Taylor \u201921 The English Department recently had the honor of hosting Seth Lerer, a Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California \u2013 San Diego. Professor Lerer gave a guest talk at the most recent first thursday workshop, made an appearance at Treat Night the day before, and even visited Professor Penelope Geng\u2019s […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":913,"featured_media":0,"parent":1039,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1045","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1045","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/913"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1045"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1045\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7691,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1045\/revisions\/7691"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1039"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.macalester.edu\/the-words\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1045"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}