"Hamlet: He's Not Suicidal and He Doesn't Want His Mother!"

Session title:  "Hamlet: He's Not Suicidal and He Doesn't Want His Mother!"

Presenter:   Dr. Gray Scott, Texas Woman's University. 

Date and location: Wednesday, January 13,  7:00-8:30 p.m. at the Denton South Branch Library. 

Series: Professor's Corner: A Literary Discussion Group. 

Session description:  Shakespeare's Hamlet. You've heard of it. You've heard it quoted frequently (even if you might not realize it). You've probably read it. But many of the statements most commonly made about the play--that Hamlet's "To be or not to be" speech is a meditation on suicide, that Hamlet has Oedipal inclinations, that Gertrude is passive and clueless, that Hamlet is indecisive--aren't, in fact, very well supported by the text of the play. Most of those assumptions are impositions, trapped in an echo chamber; we hear them, repeat them, and perpetuate them, often ignoring inconvenient parts of the text that threaten those interpretations. The resulting Hamlet, as performed on stage or in the theater of our minds, is a dreary slog. Jettison these impositions, though, and the text takes off. Instead of a talky stew of philosophy and angst, the tragedy becomes an edge-of-the-seat, spoken-word Game of Thrones. 

Cost: This program is free and open to the public. Refreshments will be served. 

Reading material: The reading made available in advance by the presenter can be obtained by accessing the material through  the calendar page of the Denton Public Library's website <www.dentonlibrary.com>--click on the calendar link from the front page and go to the session date.   Reading in advance is encouraged but not required.  

Coordinator: Fred Kamman, Denton Public Library; [email protected];  940-349-8752. 

Producer: Dr. Stephen Souris, Texas Woman's University; [email protected]; 940-898-2343.  Location of the South Branch Library: 3228 Teasley, Denton, TX  76210.  The South Branch Library is just south of the Teasley & Lillian Miller intersection.  Supporters:  Denton Public Library, Voertman's Bookstore, Recycled Books Records CDs, Cooper's Copies and Printing, and Humanities Texas. "This program was made possible in part with a grant from Humanities Texas, the state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities."

Price

• FREE!

Box Office

• 940.349.8752