Shakespeare: Biography and Anti-Biography

Synopsis

Podcast. Shakespeare’s Birthday Lecture delivered at the Folger Shakespeare Library, Elizabethan Theatre by Brian Cummings. Cummings argues that the biography of Shakespeare is a paradox. Is he our greatest author precisely because we know so little about him, and his life remains a mystery? Shakespeare is at once a figure of cultural saturation and an indefinable enigma. We see him everywhere, yet we keep on looking for more. Do we feel our lack of knowledge so painfully because it relates to a figure we care so much about? Professor Cummings discusses the problem of writing the life of Shakespeare in terms of the documentary history and its haunting sense of missing links. Perhaps the reading of a writer creates a life of its own, somewhere between writer and reader, in the mystery that constitutes the act of literature.

Series

Shakespeare’s Birthday Lecture

Language

English

Country

United States

Medium

Audio

Recording date

3 Apr 2014

Duration

59 mins

Credits

Contributor

Brian Cummings

Additional Details

Production type

Documentary/Educational/News

Subjects

Drama

Keywords

biographies; Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Notes

Notes

Podcast: http://folgerpedia.folger.edu/Shakespeare%27s_Birthday_Lecture:_Brian_Cummings:_Shakespeare,_Biography_and_Anti-Biography_%282014%29 (accessed 2/2015).

Production Company

Name

Folger Shakespeare Library

Email

reference@folger.edu

Web

http://www.folger.edu External site opens in new window

Phone

(202) 544 4600

Fax

(202) 544 4623

Address

201 East Capitol Street, SE
Washington
DC 20003
USA