Joseph Candido's 'Listening to Shakespeare' Launches New Honors College Mic Lecture Series

Adams Pryor

Professor Joseph Candido will transport listeners back to Shakespeare's day with his lecture, the first in the new Honors College Mic lecture series. Photo courtesy The Arkansas Traveler.

In today's Instagrammed, Snapchatted, selfie-saturated culture, image is all — but in Elizabethan England, the spoken word ruled. In "Listening to Shakespeare," English professor Joseph Candido will take listeners on a trip back to Shakespeare's day, opening eyes (and ears) to a greater understanding of how the Globe Theater audience experienced Shakespeare's plays. Candido's lecture will take place 5:15 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, in Gearhart Hall Auditorium (GEAR 26). 

"These plays were not written to be read — they were written to be performed," Joe Candido said. "We'll discuss how character becomes visible through language on the Shakespearean stage." 

Candido's lecture is the first in the new "Honors College Mic" series, which will highlight the expertise of Honors College faculty members drawn from across campus. 

"We have brilliant, charismatic faculty members here at the U of A who are doing cutting edge research," said Lynda Coon, dean of the Honors College. "We created this series so that everybody on campus and in the community can share in these intellectual riches."

Joseph Candido is an expert on Shakespeare and Renaissance literature and drama who has taught several generations of students since joining the Fulbright College faculty in 1979. He led the summer Theatre in London course for 23 years.

Candido has published extensively on Shakespeare and Renaissance drama, particularly the history plays, and is the editor of the King John volume in the Athlone Press series Shakespeare: The Critical Tradition (1996). Recent titles include The Text, the Play and the Globe: Essays on Literary Influence in Shakespeare's World and His Work in Honor of Charles R. Forker (2016) and (with R.W. Desai and others) Shakespeare the Man: New Decipherings (2014).