First Philosophy, Last Judgments: The Lear Real

Core Program 2016–17
Entertaining the Idea: Shakespeare, Philosophy, Performance

Conference 3: First Philosophy, Last Judgments: The Lear Real

—a conference organized by Julia Reinhard Lupton, University of California, Irvine; Lowell Gallagher, University of California, Los Angeles; and James Kearney, University of California, Santa Barbara

co-sponsored by
UCLA Office of Interdisciplinary & Cross Campus Affairs
UCLA Department of English
UCI Shakespeare Center

To me she speaks; she moves me for her theme:
What, was I married to her in my dream?
Or sleep I now and think I hear all this?
What error drives our eyes and ears amiss?
Until I know this sure uncertainty,
I’ll entertain the offer’d fallacy.
—from The Comedy of Errors

To entertain is to delight and amuse but also to receive guests and hence to court risk, from the real dangers of rape, murder, or jealousy to the more intangible exhilaration of self-disclosure and captivation in response to another. To entertain an idea is to welcome a compelling thought or beckoning fiction into the disinhibited zone of speculative play. “I’ll entertain the offer’d fallacy,” says Antipholus of Syracuse as he abandons himself to the comedy of errors. Like Antipholus, readers of fictions and viewers of plays entertain “themes” and “dreams” on their way to recognition and new knowledge as a mode of testing the significance and reach of the thought-things and person-problems, encountered in a world co-created by their imaginative participation.

The final conference queries the limits of performance in an exploration of King Lear on stage and off. Over the course of the year, philosophy’s commitment to the formation and transformation of persons through spiritual exercise finds its neighbor in drama’s arts of action, audition, and the conduct of living. To what extent, we ask, do Shakespeare’s plays train their many audiences to entertain ideas: to access drama as a means of tending and attending to self, others, and world in evolving stances of care and repair as well as inquiry and exegesis?

Images
William Blake, 1757–1827
Juliet Asleep (illustration to Shakespeare) & Cordelia and the Sleeping Lear (illustration to Shakespeare)
Pen and watercolor on paper, ca. 1780
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

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Speakers
J. K. Barret, The University of Texas at Austin
Sanford Budick, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Kevin Curran, University of Lausanne
Martin Harries, University of California, Irvine
Paul A. Kottman, The New School for Social Research
Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times
Björn Quiring, Free University of Berlin
Eli Simon, University of California, Irvine

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Program
Friday, April 28, 2017

9:30 a.m.
Morning Coffee and Registration

10:00 a.m.
Julia Reinhard Lupton, University of California, Irvine
Welcome and Introductory Remarks

10:15 a.m.

On (Not) Performing Shakespeare
Moderator: Ross Lerner, Occidental College

Paul A. Kottman, The New School for Social Research
“Shakespeare at the Limits of Performance”

11:00 a.m.
Sanford Budick, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
“Shakespeare’s Now”

11:45 a.m.
Discussion

12:15 p.m.
Lunch

1:15 p.m.

Judging Tragedy
Moderator: Anselm Haverkamp, New York University

Kevin Curran, University of Lausanne
“Prospero’s Freedom: Judgment, Invention, Responsibility”

1:45 p.m.
Björn Quiring, Free University of Berlin
“Crack Nature’s Moulds!”: The Convergence of First and Last Judgment in King Lear”

2:15 p.m.
J. K. Barret, University of Texas at Austin
“Contingent Ethics, Suspended Judgments”

2:45 p.m.
Discussion

3:45 p.m.
Coffee Break

4:00 p.m.

Roundtable: Lear at the Limits of Performance
Moderator: Julia Reinhard Lupton, University of California, Irvine

A critic, a scholar, and a director discuss Shakespearean tragedy, especially King Lear, on stage and off.

Charles McNulty, Theater Critic, Los Angeles Times
Martin Harries, Professor of English, University of California, Irvine
Eli Simon, Professor of Acting, University of California, Irvine

5:00 p.m.
Reception

Saturday, April 29, 2017

9:30 a.m.
Morning Coffee and Registration

10:00 a.m.

Concluding Roundtable: Key Words?
Moderator: James Kearney, University of California, Santa Barbara

Ahmanson-Getty Fellows and graduate students from UC campuses will return to the key words introduced during Conference 1 (Fall 2016) and see if their resonances have deepened or shifted.

Katie Adkison, University of California, Santa Barbara
Philip Aijian, University of California, Irvine
Danilo Caputo, University of California, Irvine
Peter Cibula, University of California, Irvine
Tommy Cosgrove, University of California, Irvine
James Funk, University of California, Irvine
Letty Garcia, University of California, Irvine
Laura Hatch, University of California, Irvine
Ariane Helou, Ahmanson-Getty Fellow
Sheiba Kian Kaufman, Ahmanson-Getty Fellow
Kristen McCants, University of California, Santa Barbara
Nedda Mehdizadeh, University of California, Los Angeles
Jason Morphew, University of California, Los Angeles
Alexandra Verini, University of California, Los Angeles

12:00 p.m.
Lunch provided by UCI Shakespeare Center

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After booking Day 1, please book Day 2 at: 1718.ucla.edu/lear-2