Celebrating Shakespeare 2009: “Shakespeare: the Legend that Lives on”
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Alexandria—The BA Annual Shakespeare Conference, this year entitled “Shakespeare: the Legend that Lives on”, was held at the BA on Thursday, 23 April 2009. Dr. Sahar Hamouda, Head of the English Department, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University, Director of the BA Alexandria Center for Hellenistic Studies and Deputy Director of the BA Alexandria and Mediterranean Research Center, welcomed the audience: lovers and students of the Bard.
Dr. Ismail Serageldin, Director of the Library of Alexandria, pointed out that 23 April also marks the International Day of the Book. With this Shakespearean Celebration, the BA is in fact celebrating the most genius writings in history. Serageldin then introduced eminent Professor Terence Eagleton, widely regarded as Britain’s most influential living critic.
Eagleton’s keynote speech was entitled “Shakespeare and Communism”, and he started by saying that though it might seem a bit odd to discuss Communism in relation to Shakespeare, as most people believe Communism emerged with Karl Marx, in fact it did not. With a wide range of references, ranging from Oscar Wild to Freud and from Henry James to Madonna, Eagleton gave a very interesting speech in which he asserted the relation between Shakespeare and Marx.
From Shakespeare’s last play The Tempest, Eagleton quoted a speech portraying an image of a Utopia, where nature takes us beyond everything, where humanity is passive and all the activity is on the side of nature. Another example came from another Shakespearean tragedy, King Lear. Lear casted off the fruit of his own body when he rejected his youngest daughter, Cordelia. It was only a terrible storm and a poor mad fellow who, ironically enough, brought back his senses.
Professors Azza Kararah and Esmat Waly from the University of Alexandria read some sonnets in English and Arabic, celebrating 400 years since the first Quarto edition of a sonnet appeared in print in 1609. Professor Kararah also pointed out to a contemporary portrait of Shakespeare that was only discovered on 9 March this year and is currently on display in London and the BA at the same time.
The third lecture in this one-day Conference was by Professor Mustafa Riad from Ain Shams University who gave a lecture entitled “The Brush and the Palette: Art of Painting and Shakespearean Criticism", in which he showed several paintings inspired by Shakespeare’s plays and several productions.