How to Do Things with Dead People: History, Technology, and Temporality from Shakespeare to Warhol

Alice Dailey, PhD.

Please join us on Wednesday, Nov. 9 from 7:30-8:30 p.m. in Falvey Library’s Room 205 for an event titled “Alice Dailey’s How To Do Things with Dead People: History, Technology, and Temporality from Shakespeare to Warhol, A Conversation and Celebration.” You can also REGISTER HERE to join virtually on the evening of the event.

Together Alice Dailey, PhD, Professor, Department of English, Villanova University;  Peter Holland PhD, McMeel Family Professor in Shakespeare Studies, University Of Notre Dame; and Melissa Sanchez, PhD, Donald T. Regan Professor of English and Comparative Literature, University of Pennsylvania will discuss Alice Dailey’s recently published book, How to Do Things with Dead People: History, Technology, and Temporality from Shakespeare to Warhol (Cornell University Press, 2022).

How to Do Things with Dead People: History, Technology, and Temporality from Shakespeare to Warhol studies human contrivances for representing and relating to the dead. Dailey takes as her principal objects of inquiry Shakespeare’s English history plays, describing them as reproductive mechanisms by which living replicas of dead historical figures are regenerated in the present and re-killed. Considering the plays in these terms exposes their affinity with a transhistorical array of technologies for producing, reproducing, and interacting with dead things—technologies such as literary doppelgängers, photography, ventriloquist puppetry, X-ray imaging, glitch art, capital punishment machines, and cloning.

This ACS-approved event is co-sponsored by the Department of English and Falvey Library. Light refreshments will be served.

Drama and Civility: James Shirley in the Age of Charles III

Please join us for the 2022 Outstanding Faculty Research Award Lecture featuring recipient Lauren Shohet, PhD, on Tuesday, Nov. 15 at 1 p.m. in Falvey Library’s room 205.

Dr. Shohet, Professor, Department of English, will give a presentation that highlights the extensive research that led her to win the coveted Outstanding Faculty Research Award in 2022. Her talk is titled “Drama and Civility: James Shirley in the Age of Charles III.”

Lauren Shohet, PhD.

James Shirley (1596-1666) was a dramatist who lived through much drama. Working first in the opulent orbit of King Charles I and in Ireland, then in civil spaces after the king was beheaded, then in the revival of London playhouses after the Restoration of Charles II, Shirley consistently explored ways that writing, performing, and reading plays could promote inclusive, good-humored conversation across sometimes bitter social, economic, and political divides.

Following the talk there will be short Q&A and light refreshments. This ACS-approved event, co-sponsored by Falvey Library and the Office of the Provost, is free and open to the public. Be sure to join us to honor this remarkable awardee!

You can learn more about the Outstanding Faculty Research Award here: https://www1.villanova.edu/villanova/provost/awards/research.html

Speaker Information:

Lauren Shohet, PhD, is a Professor in the Department of English at Villanova University. She earned a BA at Oberlin College, a BMus at Oberlin College Conservatory, an MA and PhD at Brown University.

Dr. Shohet’s teaching areas include Early-Modern poetry and drama, Milton, Shakespeare, History of Material Texts, Digital Humanities, Adaptation and Genre Studies.

Some of Dr. Shohet’s recent publications include: “Shakespeare’s Cymbeline and the Idea of the Interface.” (Routledge Companion to the Interface, ed. Paul Budra and Clifford Werier, 2022); “Mediation, Media, and Milton’s Eve” (Milton Studies 63.1, 2021); Gathering Force: Early Modern British Literature in Transition 1557-1623 (co-editor with Kristen Poole, Cambridge University Press, 2019); and Temporality, Genre, and Experience in the Age of Shakespeare: Forms of Time (ed., . Bloomsbury/Arden, 2018).

See Dr. Shohet’s Website for a full listing of her publications and other accomplishments: http://laurenshohet.com/

T.S. Eliot’s “The Waste Land”

In 1922, The Dial magazine published a strange new poem called “The Waste Land.” Join us on Wednesday, Nov. 16, from 4-5:30 p.m. in Falvey Library’s room 205 to celebrate 100 years of T.S. Eliot’s modernist masterpiece. Villanova English professors Kamran Javadizadeh, PhD, and Megan Quigley, PhD, will give the poem a dramatic reading and toast it with tea and sheet cake! Tarot readings, games of chess, and existential angst will be served.

This ACS-approved event is co-sponsored by the Department of English and Falvey Library.

By Ethan Shea

The world’s largest chess piece and the World Chess Hall of Fame in St. Louis, Missouri

Last week I traveled to St. Louis, Missouri to attend the Annual Meeting of the International T.S. Eliot Society. St. Louis is arguably the chess capital of the world, and Eliot, who was born in the city, was an avid chess player himself. In fact, The Waste Land, Eliot’s most famous poem, has a section titled “A Game of Chess.” This timeless piece, which was published 100 years ago, is available for pick up here at Falvey.

World Chess Hall of Fame Exhibit

During my visit, I made sure to visit the World Chess Hall of Fame. The museum’s current exhibit focuses on the famous 1972 World Championship match between Bobby Fischer and Boris Spassky. Fischer’s underdog win made him the first ever American World Chess Champion and ended 24 years of uninterrupted Soviet chess dominance.

I believe it’s safe to say that almost everything people know about chess these days was learned from the hit Netflix series The Queen’s Gambit. This isn’t a bad thing, so if you’re interested in the show, check out this “Dig Deeper” blog that provides lots of resources on chess strategy that are available in the Library.

My visit was timely, as an ongoing controversy in the world of chess has been making headlines lately. Reigning World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen recently resigned from a game against 19-year-old American Hans Niemann in the Julius Baer Generation Cup after playing only one move. This came as a shock, as having the world’s top player quit a legitimate tournament without even trying could be a bad look for the sport.

But the situation is deeper than that. It all started in St. Louis during the Sinquefield Cup. Niemann was entered in the tournament as the lowest seed and somehow managed to win against Carlsen, who even had the advantage by playing with white. The next day, Carlsen unexpectedly resigned from the tournament and posted a strange tweet claiming he can’t talk or he’ll be in “big trouble.”

Graduate Lounge Chess Board

This led fans to assume Carlsen suspected Niemann of cheating. Although Carlsen has not directly said this, fans speculate his resignation against Neimann at Julius Baer essentially confirms Carlsen’s stance. Niemann does have a history of cheating and has even been banned from chess.com, the world’s largest online chess forum, so the accusations are not entirely out of the blue.

The St. Louis Chess Club has said they do not suspect there was any cheating during Carlsen and Niemann’s game, but the resolution to the situation remains a mystery.

I’d certainly describe myself as a fan of chess. I’ve even read a couple books on chess strategy in futile attempts to improve my skills at the game. Although I might not be the best chess player, I love the endless variations and strategies the game offers. They’re always entertaining and often beautiful.

If you’re a graduate student, there’s a lovely chess board in the Graduate Student Lounge on the third floor of Old Falvey. If you’re looking to play, check it out!

Ethan Shea is a graduate student in the English Department at Villanova University and Graduate Assistant at Falvey Memorial Library.