Oxford at Home: Shakespeare and the plague

19 June 2020 - 15:15

Join Hertford’s Prof. Emma Smith in the latest Oxford at Home livestream.

Twitter has been telling us that when he was in quarantine from the plague, William Shakespeare wrote “King Lear”, but what’s the truth behind that narrative? What did Shakespeare actually do during the plague, where was he and what can it teach us about living with pandemics? Join host Professor Rana Mitter and guest speaker Professor Emma Smith, author of ‘This is Shakespeare’ and Professor of Shakespeare Studies, as they discuss how Shakespeare’s work can be seen as a cultural prophylactic against understanding disease solely in quantitative terms; a narrative vaccine.