Join us as Professor Katherine Walker (Eng lish Department\, UNLV) shares her research on the magical beings and forc es at work in seventeenth century England. This talk will highlight how au thors like Shakespeare and his contemporaries experimented with belief in magic\, producing spectacular results upon the stage. \;
\nIn R enaissance England\, magic played a surprisingly important role in both in tellectual life and literature. It wasn&rsquo\;t just seen as superstition &mdash\;many educated people\, including scholars and even some royals\, w ere genuinely interested in astrology\, alchemy\, and the occult. Figures like John Dee\, Queen Elizabeth I&rsquo\;s advisor\, blurred the line betw een science and magic\, using mathematics and mystical texts to try to und erstand the world.
\nThis fascination shows up clearly in the litera ture of the time. In plays like \;Doctor Faustus \;by Christopher Marlowe and \;The Tempest \;by Shakespeare\, magic becomes a way t o explore key ideas&mdash\;such as the thirst for power\, the danger of ov erreaching\, and the tension between knowledge and morality. In England\, magic wasn&rsquo\;t just a fantasy&mdash\;it was deeply connected to the e ra&rsquo\;s real concerns and intellectual debates.
\nThis talk will focus on the texts and belief of magic\, where figures like faeries\, gho sts\, and demons will make an appearance. We&rsquo\;ll meet an interesting cast of characters\, from charlatans to astrologers\, witches and priests . And in the end\, we will think about how magic threads throughout some o f the greatest plays of the Renaissance. \;
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