Seminar No. 1.1.

Title: Shakespeare's Mediterranean Plays and Renaissance Travel Writing.

Leaders:

Philip Edwards (University of Liverpool, UK)
Mary Fuller (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)

Participants:

Edmund Campos (Trinity College, Hartford)
Herschel Johnson (Seinan Gakuin University)
Vassiliki Markidou (Independent Scholar, Greece)
Beate Neumeier (University of Cologne)
Camille Wells Slights (University of Saskatchewan)

Abstract :

Travel narratives are now seen as an important context for drama. With specific reference to those of Shakespeare's plays
which have a predominantly Mediterranean setting (for example, The Comedy of Errors, The Merchant of Venice,
Othello, The Winter's Tale, Pericles), this seminar will seek examples of how the intersection between the two genres can
most appropriately be shown. Within this general frame, attention will be given to the encounter and exchange between
cultures within the plays, and to Shakespeare's use of actual travel and the metaphor of travel.