EVENT: GERMAINE GREER: SHAKESPEARE AND SEXUAL DIFFERENCE

Over the centuries radically different interpretations have been laid on the fact that all Shakespeare's actors were male. The Shakespearean boy playing a woman appeared in disguise, only to unmask himself for a double disguise, a boy disguised as a woman disguised as a boy. The Shakespearean male is not the same as the Victorian male; the post-modern male may be returning closer to the Elizabethan, more in touch with his feelings and unafraid of tears. Sexual difference is not a fixed quantity, but minutely responsive to cultural shifts. If it were to prove eradicable we wouldn't wish to eradicate it or would we? Germaine will also discuss two lively but unsexed characters, Puck and Ariel.

Professor Greer will answer questions on any topic at the end of the lecture.

Germaine Greer has been making headlines ever since her first book, "The Female Eunuch" was published in 1970. Feminist, anarchist and academic are all terms that have been applied, along with a lot of far less flattering ones. Her newspaper articles, published over the past few years in The Guardian, The Age, The Australian and The Sydney Morning Herald have continued to challenge the political and cultural status quo, and her last book "The Beautiful Boy" left columnists such as Damion Matthes wondering if she is a) an intellectual far ahead of her time b) a feminist who nobly breaks outmoded social dictates, or c) a dirty old woman who should be be sent swiftly on her way? Professor Greer graduated from Melbourne University in 1959 and went on to complete a Masters (with 1st class honours) at Sydney University and a PhD at Cambridge in 1967.

Course Code 0450091 $39 Bookings on 6488 2433 or online: http://www.extension.uwa.edu.au