English

Events

Dr. Craig Kallendorf: The Use and Abuse of Rhetoric in Shakespeare’s “Othello”

Date: October 5 2009, 3:30pm Location: Miller 102

This talk begins by sketching out the system of persuasive rhetoric that was known to every schoolboy in Shakespeare’s England.  The body of the talk shows how various persuasive devices–status theory, enthymemes, internal versus external proof–are used by Iago to manipulate Othello, so that the play ends as an object lesson in what happens when a good man forgets the rules of the argumentative game.  This reading of the play is one that would have made sense in Shakespeare’s day, but still has the power to speak to us as well.

Dr. Craig Kallendorf teaches in the Department of European and Classical Languages at Texas A&M University and is the author of Virgil and the Myth of Venice:  Books and Readers in the Italian Renaissance.

In coordination with Exploration & Discovery’s event scheduled for October 6.  http://www.lclark.edu/news/story/?id=2171