Past event
Saints Talk: Dr Emma Buckley Staging Revenge: Transforming the Odyssey in Early Modern England
Development is delighted to invite you to the next instalment in their Saints Talk series from Dr Emma Buckley.
In this talk Dr Buckley will explore the world of academic drama via the Ulysses Redux (or ‘Ulysses Returning') by William Gager. This play marks a fascinating turning point in English literary history, as a close reworking of Homer's Odyssey, and as a document which offers fascinating insights into the intersection of education, court culture and state power in early modern England. It is also a highly topical 16th century meditation on the ethics of vengeance, taking as its theme one of the oldest ‘revenge' stories, Ulysses' return to Ithaca after the Trojan War, and his killing of the suitors of Penelope. We will see that the Ulysses Redux asks its audience, now as then, to adjudicate on the righteousness of Ulysses' violent ‘justice', to examine our own attraction to revenge and, more broadly, to consider the difficulty in finding any suitable resolution after violent conflict.
If you have missed any of the past Saints Talk Lectures, or can't make the live stream of this one, you can watch them again on our Alumni YouTube channel.
We hope to see you on Tuesday.