Gordon McMullan

In this 400th anniversary year of Shakespeare’s death, we are delighted to welcome one of the world’s most eminent Shakespeare scholars to this year’s Festival, Professor Gordon McMullan.

Professor McMullan’s talk addresses what it means to remember Shakespeare in 2016, and reflects on the forgetting that is also required: forgetting not only aspects of Shakespeare’s life, work and legacy, but also that of certain of his contemporaries, notably those who died in the same year (Cervantes, Beaumont) or whose significant publication (the Jonson folio) has been overshadowed in subsequent centuries by Shakespeare’s cultural dominance.

The themes of what we forget and what we chose to remember will have resonances for all Belfast audiences, and the opportunity to understand the rich cultural backdrop of Shakespeare’s plays is one not to be missed.

Chaired by Hugh Odling-Smee