Shakespeare at Goldsmiths

Some 400 years since William Shakespeare’s death in 1616 at the age of 52, a wealth of exciting new research in Shakespeare studies has been published alongside festivals, exhibitions, performances around the world that celebrate his legacy.

Students from across our departments are marking the occasion with a performance of Shakespeare’s epic tragedy King Lear in the Great Hall at our New Cross campus.

Produced and performed by the Goldsmiths Acting & Filmmaking Society, the powerful show at 5pm on Saturday 30 April is directed by Jack King, with assistant director Mohammad Khan Rabbani. Tickets are on sale now.

Based in the Department of English and Comparative Literature, Dr Ros Barber recently published her latest research on The Bard, arguing that there is no strong evidence to back up claims that he used Warwickshire, Midlands or Cotswold dialect in his writing.

In a paper for the Journal of Early Modern Studies and an article for The Conversation, she explained that a continuing academic taboo surrounding the authorship question – whether or not Shakespeare penned his own work – meant that dialect claims often go unchallenged, even though they’re fairly easy to refute. Dr Barber’s PhD, awarded in 2011, was the first doctoral thesis in the UK to address the question.

Earlier on this year, as part of the British Council’s Shakespeare anniversary programme, Senior Lecturer Charlotte Scott fronted a new video explaining how almost none of the writer’s stories were original.

While 35 of 38 Shakespeare plays were borrowed from someone else, it was his ability to create emotional depth, conflict, horror and humour with his characters that made the plays his own, explained Dr Scott in the short film.

And despite Shakespeare’s plots being less than original, Professor Russ McDonald’s research explored their astonishing afterlife – the enormous influence of the playwright’s work on centuries of music.

Whether we measure by stage productions, fictional adaptations, films, parodies, editions, critical studies, musical comedies, overtures or tone poems or operas, the proliferation of titles and documents shaped by Shakespeare is staggering.

Keen to study Shakespeare at an advanced level? Find out more about our MA in Comparative Literary Studies: Pathway in Shakespeare at Goldsmiths, University of London.

Centred on Shakespeare and early modern literature and culture, through a challenging and flexible programme invigorated by the latest research you’ll deepen your understanding of Elizabethan literature, its evolution, historical and cultural context, and how it is received in the world in the present.