After a lacklustre attempt to become a painter,William Kent (1685–1748) developed a career as a garden designer, working mainly for Lord Burlington and other patrons in his circle. His gardens represent some of the earliest gardens of a style that became known as the ‘English Landscape Garden’, exemplified by Stourhead in Wiltshire, Rousham in Ox…[Read more]

No descubro nada nuevo comenzando estas líneas aludiendo al sobradamente conocido carácter de mecenas cultural y de impulsora de grandes obras artísticas de Isabel la Católica , cuyos resultados son fáciles de detectar a lo largo de todo su reinado (1474-1504). Concretando este comentario general en lo que ha sido el núcleo de mi tesis docto…[Read more]

Du sage Varnava la merveilleuse apparition de sa vision avec exemple pour tous, cette traduction-recréation roumaine en vers du Dialogus du poète baroque hongrois Nyéki Vörös Mátyas, effectuée en Transylvanie en 1670, peut être considérée comme la première œuvre du pope Ioan de Vintz. Sur le plan européen, sa Vision de Varnava représente l…[Read more]

Part of a special issue “Making Animal Materials in Time” (HSNS 53, no. 3)

Anna Morandi Manzolini (1714–1774), a Bolognese wax sculptor, overcame humble origins to become one of the most important anatomical artists of the eighteenth century. Working with her husband Giovanni Manzolini (c. 1700–1755), and continuing alone after his death, Morandi created remarkably lifelike and anatomically accurate wax models of the sen…[Read more]

Los debates literarios son prácticamente consustanciales e intrínsecos a la existencia de la literatura en cualquier lengua y en cualquier cultura, en tanto que «en último término, remiten a condicionamientos pragmáticos humanos» (Chas Aguión 2002 : 59). Por lo que respecta a su inserción en la cultura de la Edad Media hispánica, hay un aspecto i…[Read more]

For the 16th birthday of the hereditary prince Carl August of Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach on 3 September 1773, his teacher Christoph Martin Wieland had the play “The Choice of Hercules”, a “dramatic cantata”, performed at the Weimar court theatre. Did Wieland thus connect to a tradition of the Hercules myth connected with the dynasty or the place…[Read more]

This essay traces the transformations of aristocratic representation using the example of the Russian Tsar’s daughter Maria Pavlovna (1786–1859), who was married to the Weimar court in 1804. Maria Pavlovna endeavoured to put her informal ruling techniques, charitable undertakings as well as her patronage and memorial ambitions in Weimar’s ‘…[Read more]

Alexa Alice Joubin received the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Award, which recognizes Professor Joubin’s “contributions to social justice and inclusive excellence ” that exemplify “the ideals that Dr. King espoused,” particularly “community-based social justice organizing rooted in non-violence.” The MLK Award comes on the heel of her bell hook…[Read more]

Criticism of the Shakespearean canon through adaptation as a genre has the capacity for liberation and social reparation. As a cluster of complex texts that sustains both past practices and contemporary interpretive conventions, Shakespeare provides fertile ground for training students to listen intently and compassionately to other individuals’ v…[Read more]

Stage and screen adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays raise ethical questions – that is, questions about how human beings should act and treat one another. In which contexts might cross-cultural enterprises be naturalising the values associated with Shakespeare to exploit unequal power relations among artists of different backgrounds? Con…[Read more]

Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy creates a subtle apologia for the “middling sort” by challenging the socially constructed predicates of aristocratic privilege. A scrivener’s son, Kyd undertsood oeconomia, or household management, as both the means for material advancement among the “middling sort” and a potential threat to aristocratic insular…[Read more]

All the world’s a stage, but the irony is the rest of the globe often has an easier time understanding William Shakespeare than English speakers. “English audiences are at a disadvantage because the language has evolved and is more and more distant. They need footnotes, props and staging to understand,” said Alexa Alice Joubin, a Shakespeare schol…[Read more]

When ChatGPT was launched, Alexa Alice Joubin realized it was here to stay. She views it as her responsibility to teach students how to use it responsibly, not as a shortcut. “This technology is going to be with us, and students need employable skills in terms of curation, editorial repackaging and prompt engineering,” Joubin said. “They need…[Read more]

This special issue on contemporary performance proposes “trans” as method and as a social practice rather than as an immutable identity category that stands in opposition to more established ones such as cis-gender men or cisgender women. We ask new questions about Shakespearean performance: How might the meanings of the plays change if we…[Read more]

Gender is a set of interpersonal relationships and social practices that evolve in the presence of other people , in social spaces, and over time. My theory of trans lens corrects the institutionalized cis-sexism that assumes the cis status of even those characters with fluid gender practices. It does so by questioning the purported neutrality of…[Read more]

This interview with Dr. Mary Ann Saunders, conducted by Alexa Alice Joubin, offers a new interpretation of Julie Taymor’s 2010 film The Tempest. Bringing her life experience to bear on cisgender biases in non-trans artists’ works, Saunders proposes a new interpretation of Ariel, as performed by Ben Whishaw, as a trans woman who is “both beautiful…[Read more]

This interview with Terri Power, conducted by Alexa Alice Joubin, focuses on the representations of trans masculinity in Power’s play Drag King Richard III. For nearly two decades Power has been at the forefront of trans and queer representation in performances of Shakespeare. Weaving a personal story of the 1990s with Shakespeare’s early modern d…[Read more]

This interview with King Sammy Silver, conducted by Alexa Alice Joubin and Terri Power, explores drag as a stage practice. A London-based actor and YouTube personality, he represents a new generation of trans artists. He has worked with Power on multiple Shakespeare productions at Bath Spa University in the UK and elsewhere, and has been…[Read more]