Tom Stern

Lecturer in Philosophy at University College London.

Visit Tom Stern’s website here.

Presentation:

History in the Making: Theatre and the Past
Wednesday, 4 May 2011
16:00-18:00 at Senate House, Room 104

History plays have a long history — a history which is about as long as
plays, and, for that matter, about as long as history. But philosophers of
history have typically preferred to write about written history; and
philosophers of literature have typically preferred to write about novels,
occasionally historical novels. So history plays have fallen through the
gaps. There may be plenty of reasons for this, some of which I plan to
discuss; and yet, when we leave a performance of a history play, it still
seems natural to ask: ‘did it really happen like that?’ The answer, I’m
going to argue, is pretty much always ‘no’. But getting to that answer may
tell us something about history and about drama.