{"id":279,"date":"2017-12-05T17:43:10","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T17:43:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/?page_id=279"},"modified":"2019-03-22T11:45:41","modified_gmt":"2019-03-22T15:45:41","slug":"venice-as-a-metaphor-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.montclair.edu\/inserra-chair\/events\/2017-18-events\/venice-as-a-metaphor-of-the-world\/","title":{"rendered":"Venice as a Metaphor of the World: Otherness, Immigration, and Religion in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice and in Today’s World"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nTuesday, September 26, 2017 – 6:30-8:30pm
\nAlexander\u00a0Kasser Theater<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

See media coverage for this event<\/a>
\nSee\u00a0flyer<\/a>
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Karin Coonrod\u2019s production of Shakespeare\u2019s\u00a0The Merchant of Venice<\/em><\/a>\u00a0at the Kasser Theater\u00a0(September 19 \u2013 October 1, 2017) is the starting point for a conversation on immigration and religion as central issues in our contemporary world. Coonrod’s re-visioning of Shakespeare’s classic on the occasion of the\u00a0500th anniversary\u00a0of the formation of the Venice ghetto\u00a0stemmed from a desire to make the play speak to forms of otherness and exclusion across time and space.\u00a0Focused on Coonrod’s own\u00a0illustration of her project, its\u00a0staging in the Venice ghetto\u00a0and now\u00a0its adaptation for the\u00a0Kasser Theater<\/a>, the conversation will also include\u00a0presentations by Alessandro Cassin on the Jewish Ghetto in Venice, and by Teresa Fiore on immigration and exclusion as both general categories and specific practices.<\/p>\n

This panel highlights the global relevance of Shakespeare’s play – recently described by Stephen Greenblatt as “a cure against xenophobia” (see article below) – and in particular of Coonrod’s approach to it, characterized by multi-lingualism and ethnic, racial, and gender diversity. The conversation aims at showing how at a time of socio-political uncertainty for the Western World in its experience of “the other,” the play as well as the Venice ghetto where it was staged have precious ethical and cultural lessons to share about human rights, and cross-cultural and interfaith dialogue. It is in this context that Venice can function as a metaphor of the world.<\/p>\n

Program<\/strong><\/p>\n