Dr Astrid Stilma: Tyranny on the Stuart Stage

Sat 26 April, 10 - 11am

AH3.31 lecture theatre, third floor, Augustine House, CT1 2YA

Who should be king? What makes a ruler legitimate? How does one identify a tyrant? And, once identified, what action - if any - can the people take against tyranny? Questions such as these were hotly debated in the seventeenth century, both in political discourse and in popular culture. In this session we will trace the figure of the tyrant and the spectre of tyrannicide on the Stuart stage, from the reign of James VI & I to the Restoration. It will be an exploration of popular responses to the question of good and bad government, in an age in which once unassailable political institutions could no longer be taken for granted.

Astrid Stilma is a Senior Lecturer in Early Modern Studies at Canterbury Christ Church University. She is interested in the interplay between literature, popular culture and religio-political conflict in the seventeenth century. Her current research focuses on Aphra Behn, the playwright, poet, novelist and first female professional writer in English who was born in 1640 in Harbledown near Canterbury. Her forthcoming journal article is entitled ‘Negotiating Faith: Aphra Behn’s religious poetry’ which considers Aphra Behn’s ‘Paraphrase Upon the Lord’s Prayer’.

Tickets

Tickets are £10 per event. If you are booking 10 or more tickets of any given type (e.g. 10 tickets to one lecture, or 1 ticket to 10 lectures) within a single transaction, then a discount of £2 per ticket will be applied at the checkout, and you will only pay £8 per ticket.