Keynote Address: "Fiction, Faction, Fact: The Victory of Richard III "

             by Marjorie Garber, Ph.D.

Saturday, Sept. 30, 2006 at 10:00 am

Which is more powerful, fact or fiction? The Tragedy of Richard III is an eloquent testament to the power of fiction-making: the facts modern audiences know about Richard are the fictions invented by politicians and courtiers. Defeated by Henry Tudor, Richard III was re-written into the literal embodiment of evil, his fictionally misshapen body a visual metaphor for his twisted mind. But the literary character has triumphed over the rewriting of history, with defenders and analysts well into the present day.

Lecture I: "Medieval Monster or Misunderstood Hero? 'Re-viewing' Richard III Through the Centuries"

              by Sharon D. Michalove, Ph.D.

Saturday, Sept. 30 at 11:45 am and 2:15 pm

Why has Richard III remained a presence in the popular imagination? Does his continual reinvention have meaning beyond a fascination with the man himself? A subject of controversy even before his death in 1485, over the last fifteen years, Richard has again undergone reinvention, from the scholarly biography of Charles Ross to the study of service to a late medieval king as illuminated by his reign produced by Rosemary Horrox to a renewal of vilifications by popular author Alison Weir. Generation after generation has debated Richard anew--murderer or loyal friend; greedy usurper or conscientious administrator. While the sides of the argument are sharp and clear, the picture of the central character remains unfocused.

Lecture II: "Tricky Dick vs. Clever Fools, Railing Women and Annoying Children: Pretexts, Contexts, and Shakespeare's Inventions in Richard III"

by James R. Siemon, Ph.D.

Saturday, Sept. 30 at 11:45 am and 2:15 pm

Departing from his sources, Shakespeare constructs a remarkably funny tyrant and some highly vocal victims. Despite the play's relentless curses, guilty confessions, and dire prophecies, Elizabethans could also laugh at and with Shakespeare's jokey religious hypocrite, appreciate satiric resemblances between the twisted spin-master and contemporary politicians, and perhaps admire his social-climbing audacity. One audience member is said to have fallen for him erotically.  How and why the play cultivates such mixed responses toward a tyrannical, regicidal, fratricidal, uxoricidal, incestuous bogey-man will occupy our attention.

Lecture III: "Richard and Women"

              by Phyllis Rackin, Ph.D.

Saturday, Sept. 30 at 3:45 pm and Sunday, Oct. 1 at 11:00 am

In most of Shakespeare's English history plays, the roles of female characters are strictly limited both in size and in number. Richard III is a striking exception. It contains more female characters, and women have much more to say on stage than in any of Shakespeare's other English histories. This lecture will explore the roles of the women in Shakespeare's version of Richard's story and the ways Shakespeare altered history in creating them.

Schedule and speakers subject to change.