"Putting Down Kings and Princes': Class Warfare in Shakespeare and the 1500s"

"Putting Down Kings and Princes': Class Warfare in Shakespeare and the 1500s" with Dominic Gilani

Summary:

Shakespeare and the violence of class warfare might seem like they have nothing to do with each other. In Shakespeare's plays people swap genders or turn into animals, but only very rarely do they rise above their rank. All in all, with his focus on monarchs and aristocrats, Shakespeare can seem like a pretty conservative writer, and the century which he was born into, the 1500s, can seem equally lacking in any kind of revolutionary energy.

However, a closer look at Shakespeare's early work and the world around him will reveal a powder keg of political anger waiting to explode. Poverty and famine were rife, the people were pissed and so was Shakespeare. Some of his earliest works (a series of plays about the Wars of the Roses) give us a taste of this class anger. This talk explores those plays and this period in all their bloody horror and glory.

Bio:

Dominic Gilani is a PhD researcher and Graduate Teaching Assistant at University of Bristol working on the early history plays of Shakespeare, focusing on class dynamics. His attention to 'class' extends beyond his research into his work as a Postgraduate Researcher Representative for the University and Colleges Union (UCU) and a delegate of the Bristol Trades Union Council.

Venue:
Pizza East, Shoreditch
56 Shoreditch High Street
E1 6JJ

Event Running Time:
Doors from 12pm
Introduction: 12:45pm
Lecture: 12:50pm
Q&A: 13:30pm
Finish: 13:45pm

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