Students welcome Oxford don and RSC associate scholar

The prestigious Oxford don, Professor Emma Smith, who is also an associate scholar with the Royal Shakespeare Company, informed and entertained literature students at Rugby School’s Temple Speech Room.

Her lecture on ‘Tragic Men? Toxic Men? Gender and the definition of Shakespearean tragedy’ brought together not only Rugby School students, but also sixth form students from the two local grammar schools, for an entertaining interrogation of Shakespeare’s tragedies by Prof Smith.

The result was a richly rewarding evening that offered fresh insight into canonical works.

Professor Emma Smith’s work is on Shakespeare – on stage, print, and in wider culture. She has written on Shakespeare’s First Folio (1623) – the first collected edition of his plays – and is interested in how Shakespeare came to be so important. She has contributed to radio and tv programmes and written extensively for newspapers and magazines, including The New York Times, The Telegraph, The Observer and The Guardian.