On Tuesday 22nd November, the English Department were delighted to host Dr Anna Beer, a Visiting Fellow of Kellogg College, Oxford, for her Literary Society lecture on Hamlet.

In a most enriching and useful talk, Dr Beer offered a comprehensive and probing overview of the play. This included consideration of the play as meta-theatre, with many of the protagonists “performing”, as well as a contextual reminder of how radical and unstable a medium theatre was at the time in which Shakespeare was writing. There was also a focus on Hamlet as a revenge tragedy and the presentation of women and views of women in the play. Hamlet’s broader contexts, including Shakespeare’s sources and the politics that informs the play’s plot, were also discussed at length in a highly engaging manner.

We are yet more thrilled that our Literary Society lectures are being enjoyed by an ever increasing number. In addition to our own Sixth Form students of A Level English Literature, we were joined for this lecture by students and staff from a range of London schools including Notting Hill and Ealing, City of London Girls’, North London Collegiate, Lady Margaret’s, Our Lady’s Convent High School and Haggerston School.

Mr T-S. Li
Head of English