'The Drama of Politics, The Politics of Drama'

 

The third in the current Seamus Heaney Lecture Series, 'The Mirror Up to Nature', given on 27 November by Professor Ania Loomba of the University of Pennsylvania, was something of a tour de force, confirming that this is already one of the strongest series to date.  Professor Loomba's response to her title, 'The Drama of Politics, the Politics of Drama', was to concentrate on the Shakespearean era and the extent to which so much of the contemporary drama gave graphic depiction to strangers and outsiders--Othello, Shylock, Caliban.  She showed brilliantly how the word, 'race', was more generalised in connotation than in its modern ethnic usage, referring at that time to 'strangers' in general.  In an impressively erudite integration of literary insight, history, politics and feminist perspective, Professor Loomba addressed issues to do with women, insiders/outsiders, and group identity, including that of Ireland.  After her lecture. a real measure of the scope of her profound understanding of the complex issues raised, was her ease with questions from the floor.

Ania Loomba, Pat Burke

The next lecture in the current series 'What is Drama in Education ?'will be delivered by Cecily O'Neill on Monday 29 January 2007.

 

Last Updated: Thursday November 30 2006