Shakespeare and Performance; Thinking, Teaching, and the Public Life of the Arts
The Continuing Education program organized by the English department was launched in 2013. Headed by Martine Hennard Dutheil de la Rochère assisted by Marie Emilie Walz, it offers one-day courses in September around a chosen theme, approach, genre or author pertaining to Anglophone literatures, languages and cultures. As part of the UNIL/EPFL Formation Continue portfolio of training activities (http://www.formation-continue-unil-epfl.ch ), this short course is intended for adult learners and designed for the intellectual stimulation, pedagogical reflection and personal enrichment of teachers of English through lectures delivered by members of the English department and invited speakers, workshops and other activities. The course is supplemented by relevant material accessible to participants on Moodle. Boris Vejdovsky joined the team in 2018.
How can a focus on theatrical performance change our understanding
of the historical conditions and social value of Shakespeare’s art?
This course will answer this question along five axes: public life,
adaptation, text, space, and books. Shakespearean performance will be
re-presented not just as a medium for delivering a script, but also as a
source of collective ethical experience (public life), a vehicle for ongoing
cultural dialogue (adaptation), an expression and shaper of words
printed on a page (text), a way to reflect critically on interpersonal
relations in material environments (space), and a force that energizes
readerly experience, both in Shakespeare’s time and our own (books).