Glocal Performance in a Port City: Rouen (ca. 1610)

In this talk Dr. Wikström will take us on a tour of the bustling, multicultural port city of seventeenth-century Rouen and demonstrate how the urban center's position in global trade networks helped shape theatrical performance there. Focusing on Nicolas Chrétien des Croix's 1608 tragedy "The Unfortunate Portuguese", he will explore the ways in which playwrights in Rouen simultaneously addressed local urban issues – in this case the historically overlooked presence in the city of Marranos expelled from Portugal – and global concerns – the ethical and legal questions of border crossing, refugee status and hospitality provoked by the contact of previously separated European and African cultures in a globalizing early modern world.

Dr. Toby Erik Wikström runs the professional development program for PhD students and advisors at the University of Iceland Graduate School and holds a secondary appointment as Research Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Languages and Cultures.

Co-sponsored by the Gore Chair and Global Humanities Center