The fourth lecture in the lecture series Global Footprints, Local Contexts takes place Thursday November 14, 11.15 – 14.00, in bldg. 1584, room 112 (Kasernen) under the title Conflicting Cosmologies in the Renaissance

Opinions, ideologies and ethical standards are often in conflict in a globalized world. But in certain periods of radical cultural transitions entire cosmologies and world views collide. It happened in the European Renaissance with effects into the present world, but also revealing general features of the profound conflicts in today’s world of cultural encounters. Literature has always played an important role in both articulating the conflicts and shaping our understanding of them.

Speakers are Professor John Drakakis, English Studies, Stirling University, and Assistant Professor Joseph Sterrett, English Studies, AU.

John Drakakis is a world leading expert in Shakespeare and Renaissance studies as well as in modern critical theory. His recent edition of The Merchant of Venice (2011) in the prestigious Arden series is a landmark, and his attempt to redirect Shakespeare Shakespeare studies in collections like Alternative Shakespeare (1985), Shakesperean Tragedy (1998) and Tragedy (1998) has been influential. He is the general editor of the Routledge Critical Idiom Series.

Joseph Sterrett works with English Renaissance in and around Shakespeare and its cultural context. Among his publications are The Unheard Prayer: Religious Toleration in Shakespeare’s Drama (2012) and he has also worked on the meaning of place in the collection Sacred Text – Sacred Space (2011). He is the general editor of the journal Scintilla.