Harvard Book Store; WGBH Forum Network; Stephen Greenblatt: Shakespeare's Freedom

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Good evening. My name is Ryan meta and on behalf of Harvard bookstore I am thrilled to welcome you to tonight's event with Professor Steven Green. He's with us today. He's with us tonight to discuss his new book Shakespeare's freedom. Tonight's event is one of many interesting talks that Harvard bookstore is hosting this fall. Upcoming talks include appearances by the exiled writer Edwidge Danticat literary historian Susan Cheever and the world renowned Solomon Rushdie. These events and more are listed online at Harvard dot com. The best way to find out about upcoming events is through our weekly email newsletter which you can sign up for by visiting Harvard dot com and click you know unsubscribe. You can also follow us on Twitter become our fan on Facebook or pick up a paper event schedule at the information desk. After tonight's reading we'll have time for questions from the audience. And at the close of the talk will have a signing at this table and you can find copies of Shakespeare's freedom at the registers. You have my thanks for buying your books from Harvard bookstore and attending events like tonight's your
participation supports the existence of not only this author series but of an independent and community focused bookstores well. A quick reminder that now is a great time to switch off or silence your cell phones. Tonight on behalf of Harvard bookstore I am honored to introduce Professor Steven Green Blatt to discuss his new book Shakespeare's freedom the world Shakespeare Shakespeare wrote in was one of conformity and strict adherence to Scripture. Monarch in God in Shakespeare's freedom. Professor Green addresses four themes across the Bard's writing and spotlights a Shakespeare who provides escapism from that rigid world. Shakespeare's freedom is written by an enthusiastic expert a man equally comfortable analyzing plot points as discussing plays with US presidents speaking with President Clinton about Macbeth the professor greenback cream Blatz.
Collection
Harvard Book Store
Series
WGBH Forum Network
Program
Stephen Greenblatt: Shakespeare's Freedom
Contributing Organization
WGBH (Boston, Massachusetts)
AAPB ID
cpb-aacip/15-8p5v698b5r
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Description
Episode Description
Shakespeare scholar Stephen Greenblatt discusses his new book, "Shakespeare's Freedom." Shakespeare lived in a world of absolutes--of claims for the absolute authority of scripture, monarch, and God, and the authority of fathers over wives and children, the old over the young, and the gentle over the baseborn. Stephen Greenblatt, author of the best-selling "Will in the World," shows that Shakespeare was strikingly averse to such absolutes and constantly probed the possibility of freedom from them. Again and again, Shakespeare confounds the designs and pretensions of kings, generals, and churchmen. His aversion to absolutes even leads him to probe the exalted and seemingly limitless passions of his lovers. Greenblatt explores this rich theme by addressing four of Shakespeare's preoccupations across all the genres in which he worked. He first considers the idea of beauty in Shakespeare's works, specifically his challenge to the cult of featureless perfection and his interest in distinguishing marks. He then turns to Shakespeare's interest in murderous hatred, most famously embodied in Shylock but seen also in the character Bernardine in Measure for Measure. Next Greenblatt considers the idea of Shakespearean authority--that is, Shakespeare's deep sense of the ethical ambiguity of power, including his own. Ultimately, Greenblatt takes up Shakespearean autonomy, in particular the freedom of artists, guided by distinctive forms of perception, to live by their own laws and to claim that their creations are singularly unconstrained.
Date
2010-11-15
Topics
Literature
History
Subjects
History; Art & Architecture
Media type
Moving Image
Duration
00:02:18
Embed Code
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Credits
Distributor: WGBH
Writer: Greenblatt, Stephen
AAPB Contributor Holdings
WGBH
Identifier: dfd5b0c996cabf2f41b312eb70ae3088f57f5e68 (ArtesiaDAM UOI_ID)
Format: video/quicktime
Duration: 00:01:38
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Citations
Chicago: “Harvard Book Store; WGBH Forum Network; Stephen Greenblatt: Shakespeare's Freedom,” 2010-11-15, WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed May 11, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-8p5v698b5r.
MLA: “Harvard Book Store; WGBH Forum Network; Stephen Greenblatt: Shakespeare's Freedom.” 2010-11-15. WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. May 11, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-8p5v698b5r>.
APA: Harvard Book Store; WGBH Forum Network; Stephen Greenblatt: Shakespeare's Freedom. Boston, MA: WGBH, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-15-8p5v698b5r