The Literature Department invites you to attend a talk held in conjunction with the search for a position in Early Modern Comparative Studies/Shakespeare:

“Bison Hamlet” considers the idea of species extinction in myths of the westward transmission of culture in early modern England (translation of empire) and nineteenth-century America (Manifest Destiny). The chief exhibits are an 1861 painting of the American frontier — in which a bison features as Hamlet — and the graveyard scene of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.

Heather James teaches English and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California, with emphases on English, Latin, and Italian. Her long-standing interests include classical transmission, poetry and drama, politics, book history and gender. Newer interests include commonplacing and the presence of Renaissance culture in the American West.

At 4 p.m., Professor James will conduct a graduate-student-only seminar on Hamlet Act V, scene 1