The CRRS is delighted to welcome Professor David Schalkwyk (Folger Institute) who will deliver a lecture entitled “The Impossible Gift of Love in The Merchant of Venice and the Sonnets.” This lecture is co-sponsored by the Department of English.
Abstract: Departing from Luther’s distinction between gifts between people as being things of “portions and pieces” as opposed to the wholeness of God’s gift of grace, this paper explores the nature of the gift in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice as a mode of forging, negotiating or alienating love. The argument will encompass the analysis of the nature of the gift by Marcel Maus and Jacques Derrida, and explore parallels between Shakespeare’s comedy and his sonnets.
David Schalkwyk is Director of Research at the Folger Shakespeare library and editor of Shakespeare Quarterly. He came to the Folger from the University of Cape Town, where he is Professor of English and also recently completed a term as Deputy Dean in the Faculty of Humanities. His most recent publication is Shakespeare, Love, and Service (Cambridge University Press, 2008).