The Charleston to Charleston Literary Festival is a family event. Nowhere this year is this fact more evident than in two of our Saturday sessions: Renaissance Muse with Ramie Targoff, and Tyrant: Shakespeare on Power with Stephen Greenblatt. Targoff and Greenblatt just happen to be two halves of a literary power couple, and we’re thrilled to share a bit about them each today.
Ramie Targoff, professor of English and Italian studies at Brandeis University, is a well-established scholar in the field of Renaissance history and literature. She is no stranger to poetry and life between the 14th and 17th centuries after publishing six books all related to the Renaissance. Her most recent work, “Renaissance Woman: The Life of Vittoria Colonna”, is a biographical piece about Colonna, one of Michelangelo’s confidants.
Targoff received her B.A. in English from Yale University, and later earned her Ph.D in English from the University of California, Berkeley. Since earning her degrees, Targoff has pursued a career in academia, holding faculty positions at prestigious universities, Yale and Brandeis.
Over the past 20 years, as an accomplished professor, Targoff has somehow found the time to publish four books, and collaborate with other authors on two other works.
We are excited to have Targoff speak to us at C2C about her most recent work. Renaissance Woman, has already received acclaim in the scholarly world as an in-depth, biographical look into the glamorous life of an inspiring heroine.
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Greenblatt has spent more than 40 years of his scholarly and professional career studying and researching the Renaissance and Shakespeare. In addition, he has worked to create a critical ideology he coined “new historicism”. Greenblatt received his B.A. from Yale University and continued his academic career at Pembroke College, Cambridge earning his Ph.D.
Like his partner, Greenblatt has published numerous books and has received many awards and grants in support of his work. Six of his 13 published pieces focus on Shakespeare studies. This includes his most recent book, Tyrant: Shakespeare on Politics. Tyranny is a common theme in the works of Shakespeare, and is the subject of discourse in Greenblatt’s book and his lecture at C2C this year. Greenblatt will explore and discuss the power dynamics in Shakespeare's dramas and if they resonate in contemporary society.
C2C could not be more thrilled to host Targoff and Greenblatt this year. Both sessions will provide captivating discussions curated by these experts in Renaissance and Shakespeare studies. Ramie Targoff’s lecture, “Renaissance Muse,” and Stephen Greenblatt’s discussion, “Tyrant: Shakespeare on Power,” will both be held on November 10.