London Renaissance Seminar: The Opportune Moment and the Early Modern Theatre of Politics
When:
—
Venue:
Birkbeck 43 Gordon Square
No booking required
This seminar was the first meeting of Grasping Kairos, an international research network which investigates the history of the opportune moment (kairos/ occasio) in literature, theory, art, religion and philosophy. This seminar will focus on the uses, and the idea, of the opportune moment in the political theatre / theatrical politics of the European Renaissance.
Although in many ways lost to contemporary conceptualisations of temporality, kairos/occasio was an essential part of the Renaissance world-view. Writers from Machiavelli to Shakespeare reiterated the importance of recognising and properly seizing kairos or ‘occasion’ in order to achieve desired ends – whether personal or political. The need to be attentive to this moment could justify normally immoral actions, and so kairos was associated with moral flexibility, deviousness and cunning, both in the political and theatrical worlds.
The London Renaissance Seminar awarded the Grasping Kairos network a Small Prize Internship 2014/15 to fund this event.
Contact name:
Sue Wiseman