Shakespeare and Protestant Poetics

Prof. Jason Gleckman
Department of English
The Chinese University of Hong Kong

Abstract:
In this talk, Jason Gleckman will explain the major ideas of his recent book, Shakespeare and Protestant Poetics (Palgrave Press 2019).

In relation to religious history, the book’s premise is that, while tensions between Catholics and Protestants in Europe in the sixteenth century were largely a matter of nationalism and politics, there were also sufficient intellectual/theological differences between the two groups as to justify calling the Protestant Reformation a revolution in Christian thought, almost the origin of a new faith. This talk will briefly outline some of these features of early modern Protestantism that most dramatically distinguish it from earlier Christian beliefs and justify speaking of it as a new way of conceiving the relationship between God and humans.

The talk will also provide examples of these ‘new’ Protestant ways of thinking, taken from the plays of William Shakespeare (1564-1616). The (unspoken and unprovable) conclusion is that the adoption of Protestant thinking is one of the factors that make Shakespeare’s plays so memorable.

Bio:
Professor Jason Gleckman taught in the English Department at the Chinese University of Hong Kong for 25 years, from 1995-2020. He is now happily retired but remains actively engaged in the reading and teaching of literature.