Shakespeare 2026: relevance, resilience, and no more 'Hamlet'

Event details

The Annual Distinguished Patrides Lecture with speaker Professor Emma Smith (Oxford).

In this lecture, Smith will review some of the ways that Shakespeare has been found to be a useful or relevant resource at different historical moments, pointing out that while some periods and places have found particular go-to plays (Troilus and Cressida during the Vietnam War, for instance, or Julius Caesar during the first Trump presidency), Hamlet has seemed to be a perennial. She’ll be rude about Hamlet, and then propose instead an alternative play for our attention in the early twenty-first century. This play can speak to our moment, reflect some of our concerns, and use its fictions for good. You’ll have to come to the lecture to find out which play - and see whether you agree.

Professor Emma Smith

Emma Smith is Professor of Shakespeare Studies at Hertford College, University of Oxford. Her research is about the reception of Shakespeare’s works in the theatre, in print, and in criticism – and especially on why we are so invested in particular myths about his life and canon. Her books include Shakespeare’s First Folio: Four Centuries of an Iconic Book (2016), This Is Shakespeare (2019), and Portable Magic: a history of books and their readers (2023). She is currently at work on a Shakespeare graphic novel and completing a book on whether England had a renaissance in the sixteenth century.