Monday, March 24, 2025
11:00 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. EDT
Location: Online (3:00 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. GMT)
March 24, 2025
Cultural Encounters in Shakespeare’s “The Merchant of Venice”
Event Series: Cultural Encounters: Books that Have Made a Difference
Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice (1595-1596) was written at a time when England was embarking on economic development through trade. Venice is an example of how such an economy can flourish, but it also shows the dangers of encounter that it can bring. In this talk, Michael Scott will consider the cultural encounters that occur in The Merchant of Venice. The main encounter is between Antonio, who is Christian, and Shylock, who is Jewish. Further encounters include Antonio's relationship with Bassanio and Portia’s response to her dead father’s will. These encounters encompass the entire play and are seemingly reconciled by the end—but are they? In the end, there are two victims whom others fail to recognize in their “otherness.”
This event is sponsored by the Future of the Humanities Project and the Georgetown Humanities Initiative at Georgetown University with Blackfriars Hall, Oxford. It is part of the series Cultural Encounters: Books that Have Made a Difference.
Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons user Christine Zenino.
Participants
Michael Scott
Michael Scott is senior dean, fellow of Blackfriars Hall, Oxford, college advisor for postgraduate students, and a member of the Las Casas Institute. He also serves as senior advisor to the president of Georgetown University. Scott previously served as the pro-vice-chancellor at De Montfort University and founding vice-chancellor of Wrexham Glyndwr University, where he is professor emeritus.
Michael Collins
Michael Collins is a teaching professor of English and dean emeritus at Georgetown University. He has published essays on Anglo-Welsh poetry in Poetry Wales, World Literature Today, the Dictionary of Literary Biography, and the Anglo-Welsh Review. He is an honorary fellow of Wrexham Glyndwr University, University of Wales, and a recipient of Georgetown University’s Presidential Medal and its Bunn Award for Outstanding Teaching.