On the occasion of the 450th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s birth, UCL SSEES, the Croatian Embassy in London and the Department for Comparative Literature, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, with the support of the Croatian Ministry of Culture, organised a round table entitled "Shakespeare and Držic: Uncanny Affinities" which drew parallels between Croatian renaissance drama writer Marin Držic (1508-1567) and William Shakespeare (1564-1616).
A roundtable, opened by the Croatian Ambassador Dr Ivan Grdešic’s welcome words, brought together experts and academics from Croatia and UK who discussed influences, interaction, comparison and similarities in style of the two prominent writers who belonged to the same literary period.
The panellist from Croatia, Professor Lada Cale Feldman, Professor Tomislav Brlek, and Senior Assistant Kristina Grgic, from the Department of Comparative Literature, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb stressed similarities between Držic"s and Shakespeare"s work in their innovative usage of the pastoral tradition and conventions. This feature has proved to be rich for investigation in its various aspects and from different perspectives – i.e. thematic, formal, theatrical, literary-historical and cultural-historical.
Professor Rene Weis from the English Department, University of London College commented on Shakespeare and his time, cultural inflluence and literary transfers of the period while Professor Neema Parvin from the University of Surrey analysed the concept of "Citizen Comedy" from the standpoint of Shakespeare and Držic.
The roundtable was illustrated by excerpts from Držic’s and Shakespeare’s plays as a demonstration of similarities in writing style and rhythm, read by British actress Victoria Barker and Croatian artist Filip Krenus.
Scientific convention was the opportunity for straightening further cooperation between the British and Croatian universities offering ideas for new literary research.
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