Friday, December 29, 2006

How to Justify Killing a Tyrant- using Shakespeare


Talk of the day- Shakespeare, Rhetoric and Politics: how to justify killing a tyrant;

“If you think that the idea of finding a justification for overthrowing a tyrant is only a contemporary concept, think again. Defining tyranny and working out justifications for killing tyrants were hotly topics towards the end of the 16th century. And those debates are reflected in Shakespeare's play, Julius Caesar. Quentin Skinner is the Regius Professor of Modern History at the University of Cambridge and he is in Australia for a conference on Shakespeare and Political thought at the ANU. The paper he is giving is called "Julius Caesar and the Justification of Tyrannicide".

Related;
How to appreciate Shakespeare

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