Kingston Shakespeare Seminar: Tamburlaine's succession

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Time: 6.00pm - 8.00pm
Venue: Rose Theatre, 24-26 High Street, Kingston upon Thames, Surrey KT1 1HL
Price: free
Speaker(s): Edward Paleit

The first session of the Kingston Shakespeare Seminar (KiSS) series of 2018 features Edward Paleit (City, University of London). The talk is free and all are welcome.

This talk focuses on the tensions and contradictions in Marlowe's dramatization of the death of Tamburlaine, and the succession of his son Amyras, at the end of Tamburlaine Part Two. It argues that Marlowe's treatment reflects and illuminates problems in late sixteenth-century succession theory, but also exposes the faultlines in his own imagining of political authority in the Tamburlaine plays. That imagining is often held to be uniquely radical, but in fact similar faultlines can be found in analogous scenes of regal divestiture and transference in Dido Queen of Carthage and Edward II: they are fundamental aspects of Marlowe's political imagination. The talk concludes by asking whether Marlowe genuinely possessed a 'political metaphysics'; and if he did not, what the implications are for those who wish to compare him to Shakespeare or situate him in relation to contemporary and modern political ideologies.

Dr. Edward Paleit works on early modern English and European literature and political culture. His first book, War, Liberty and Caesar (2013) described the politics of the English reception of the Latin poet Lucan between c. 1580 and 1650. He is currently completing a monograph on Christopher Marlowe's political imagination. He has recently joined City, University of London as director of their recently established BA English programme.

For further information about this event:

Contact: Richard Wilson
Email: R.Wilson@kingston.ac.uk