Cervantes and Shakespeare: A Transnational Conversation

A Joint Cervantes Symposium / Early Modern Studies Symposium.

To commemorate the lives of Cervantes and Shakespeare, two towering figures of European literature, on the occasion of the four hundredth anniversary of their shared death date in April 1616, the Center for Renaissance Studies at The Newberry, Chicago Independent Research Library, will host a three-day public symposium to spotlight their achievements and examine the parallels and intersections of their work.

Thursday, April 14

3 to 4:45 pm – Session 1: The Worlds of Cervantes and Shakespeare

• Chair: Anne J. Cruz, University of Miami.
• Speakers: Mercedes Alcalá-Galán, University of Wisconsin-Madison; Steven Hutchinson, University of Wisconsin-Madison; James Knapp, Loyola University Chicago; Scott Sowerby, Northwestern University.

4:45 to 5:45 pm – Reception

6 to 7:30 pm – Session 2: Dialog on Cervantes and Shakespeare

• Moderator: Liesl Olson.
• Speakers: William Egginton, Johns Hopkins University; James Shapiro, Columbia University.

Friday, April 15

10 am to noon – Session 3: Selections from Cervantes’ Eight Interludes

• Introduction: Bruce Burningham, Illinois State University
• Dramatic reading by The Shakespeare Project of Chicago. Directed by David Skidmore

Noon to 2 pm – Lunch Break

2 to 3:30 pm – Session 4: Cervantes, Shakespeare, and Performance, A Roundtable Discussion

• Chair: Glen Carman, DePaul University.
• With Rosilie Hernández, University of Illinois at Chicago; Javier Irigoyen-García, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; David Skidmore, The Shakespeare Project of Chicago; Will West, Northwestern University.

Saturday, April 16

Related program: The Shakespeare Project of Chicago will perform a staged reading of the play Cardenio, by Charles Mee and Stephen Greenblatt, inspired by a lost play of Shakespeare’s that was based on a story from Don Quixote. The performance begins at 10 am, with an introductory talk fifteen minutes beforehand.