Spring Break
Professor makes connection between Shakespeare, ocean
Lisa McGunigal
Issue date: 2/25/09 Section: News
02/25/09 - Since 1992, University of Rhode Island alumni Edmund and Nathalie Rumowicz have donated money toward the Edmund and Nathalie Rumowicz Endowed Literature and the Sea Seminar/Lecture Series. The public lectures about marine literature serve as a supplement to an English course, Literature of the Sea.
The first lecturer this semester was professor Steve Mentz of St. John's University and the lecture, "Fathoming Shakespeare's Ocean: The Sea in English Literary Culture," covered the beginning and end of Mentz's upcoming book, "At the Bottom of Shakespeare's Ocean."
Mentz examined what the ocean takes away, what it gives back and its changing meaning in the world. Instead of sailors once strolling through Manhattan, there are now bankers and lawyers. Mentz said, "In New York, the ocean isn't the heart of the city anymore."
Often, the ocean provides instability, Mentz said, and gives back the natural vision of the world.
"The ocean represents our alien globe," Mentz said.
In Shakespeare's time, the bottom of the ocean could never be touched, but people could reach descriptions of the ocean through the use of the lead line, an early navigating device that measures the depth of the ocean.
"We never reach the bottom, but we see what's there," Mentz said.
There are also ocean phrases that have entered everyday language. Mentz referenced "the bitter end" and "by and large" as coming from sailors' terms. The word "fathom" also has both the definition of discerning a hidden meaning and a measure of underwater depth.
He talked to Shakespeare's use of the ocean in "The Tempest" and specifically, Ariel's song in the first act. With Ariel's song, "The ocean is everywhere and nowhere," It song insists that people look closer at the things at the bottom of the ocean and how the ocean changes them.
Ariel's song is narrative and metaphorical, since it draws Ferdinand away from death and transforms powers of the magic of the ocean. As Mentz said, "We never find the treasures that the song promises."
The first lecturer this semester was professor Steve Mentz of St. John's University and the lecture, "Fathoming Shakespeare's Ocean: The Sea in English Literary Culture," covered the beginning and end of Mentz's upcoming book, "At the Bottom of Shakespeare's Ocean."
Mentz examined what the ocean takes away, what it gives back and its changing meaning in the world. Instead of sailors once strolling through Manhattan, there are now bankers and lawyers. Mentz said, "In New York, the ocean isn't the heart of the city anymore."
Often, the ocean provides instability, Mentz said, and gives back the natural vision of the world.
"The ocean represents our alien globe," Mentz said.
In Shakespeare's time, the bottom of the ocean could never be touched, but people could reach descriptions of the ocean through the use of the lead line, an early navigating device that measures the depth of the ocean.
"We never reach the bottom, but we see what's there," Mentz said.
There are also ocean phrases that have entered everyday language. Mentz referenced "the bitter end" and "by and large" as coming from sailors' terms. The word "fathom" also has both the definition of discerning a hidden meaning and a measure of underwater depth.
He talked to Shakespeare's use of the ocean in "The Tempest" and specifically, Ariel's song in the first act. With Ariel's song, "The ocean is everywhere and nowhere," It song insists that people look closer at the things at the bottom of the ocean and how the ocean changes them.
Ariel's song is narrative and metaphorical, since it draws Ferdinand away from death and transforms powers of the magic of the ocean. As Mentz said, "We never find the treasures that the song promises."
