2022 Natalie Zemon Davis Annual Lecture Series (June 9, June 17, June 20)
Stephen Greenblatt, Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard, is the author of fourteen books, including the Tyrant: Shakespeare on Power; The Swerve: How the World Became Modern; and Will in the World: How Shakespeare Became Shakespeare. His honors include the Holberg Prize, the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Award, and the Mellon Distinguished Humanist Award.
Reports from a Besieged City
Throughout much of history, siege warfare was a principal form of encounter between enemies, and, to our horror, recent events have returned it to the forefront of our consciousness. Its all-too-familiar features include a gathering menace, a retreat inside protective walls, desperate sallying forth, the calling in of allies, the launching of missiles, boredom, disease, and growing rage among the besiegers, hunger and internal dissension among the besieged, and the wholesale massacre of civilians. The military encounter was very early extended symbolically to a wide range of experiences, from sinful temptation, to seduction, to internal conflict, to spiritual struggle, to the attempt to evade persecution and censorship, to epidemic disease. My concern in these lectures is with the production of literature in and about such conditions. And hovering behind this concern is another one: is it possible not only to survive siege but also to escape from the siege mentality altogether? And can literature play a part in this escape?
Lecture 3 (June 20): Diogenes' Barrel
The lecture focuses on three works that attempt, in very different ways, to complicate and blur the moral and emotional focus of siege warfare, whether that focus is on the besieged, as it is in my first lecture, or the besieger, as it is in my second. The three works are Donne’s Holy Sonnet “Batter my heart,” Shakespeare’s Troilus and Cressida, and a tiny piece of Rabelais’ enormous Gargantua and Pantagruel.
This lecture is hybrid. If you would like to attend the lecture in person, please, fill out the registration form. Registration deadline: June 10.
Zoom link:
https://ceu-edu.zoom.us/j/98865897581?pwd=Mjl6cDdyN3cxbXlkQ1NoWlB5U2diZz09
Meeting ID: 988 6589 7581
Passcode: 991716