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Webster’s The Duchess of Malfi and The White Devil: OLLI-UO Presents a UO Insight Seminars Lecture

Monday, February 24, 2020 at 2:00pm to 3:00pm

Baker Downtown Center, Alaska-Mexico
975 High Street, Eugene, OR 97401

John Webster’s tragedies depict strong women struggling for independence in corrupt families and dangerous love affairs. The Duchess of Malfi is the most-performed non-Shakespearean Renaissance play; The White Devil addresses still-important questions of power, law, and gender equity.

About the presenter: Lara Bovilsky is an Associate Professor in the UO Department of English whose work explores early modern British understandings of group and individual identity. Her first book, Barbarous Play: Race on the English Renaissance Stage (University of Minnesota Press, 2008), examines depictions of race in early modern drama by Shakespeare, Marlowe, Webster, and Middleton.

Her website tells the story of how Shakespeare’s global rise and influence depended on and led to successive waves of rewritings and alteration of his works. Have a look at how some of the new plays, fan fiction, and children's versions of Shakespeare enabled Shakespeare's changing role in culture and literature.

This lecture is a preview/overview of the full four-week UO Insight Seminars course and is open to the public. For more information on 2020 UO Insight Seminars offerings, visit the program website.