Professor makes connection between Shakespeare, ocean

02/25/09 - Since 1992, University of Rhode Island alumni Edmund and Nathalie Rumowicz have donated money toward the Edmund and Nathalie Rumowicz Endowed Literature and the Sea Seminar/Lecture Series. The public lectures about marine literature serve as a supplement to an English course, Literature of the Sea. The first lecturer this semester was professor Steve Mentz of St. John's University and the lecture, "Fathoming Shakespeare's Ocean: The Sea in English Literary Culture," covered the beginning and end of Mentz's upcoming book, "At the Bottom of Shakespeare's Ocean."

Mentz examined what the ocean takes away, what it gives back and its changing meaning in the world. Instead of sailors once strolling through Manhattan, there are now bankers and lawyers. Mentz said, "In New York, the ocean isn't the heart of the city anymore."

Often, the ocean provides instability, Mentz said, and gives back the natural vision of the world.

"The ocean represents our alien globe," Mentz said.

In Shakespeare's time, the bottom of the ocean could never be touched, but people could reach descriptions of the ocean through the use of the lead line, an early navigating device that measures the depth of the ocean.

"We never reach the bottom, but we see what's there," Mentz said.

There are also ocean phrases that have entered everyday language. Mentz referenced "the bitter end" and "by and large" as coming from sailors' terms. The word "fathom" also has both the definition of discerning a hidden meaning and a measure of underwater depth.

He talked to Shakespeare's use of the ocean in "The Tempest" and specifically, Ariel's song in the first act. With Ariel's song, "The ocean is everywhere and nowhere," It song insists that people look closer at the things at the bottom of the ocean and how the ocean changes them.

Ariel's song is narrative and metaphorical, since it draws Ferdinand away from death and transforms powers of the magic of the ocean. As Mentz said, "We never find the treasures that the song promises."

In "The Tempest," Prospero educates Miranda of the sea, discusses their exile by sea and the current sea storm that washes people upon their island. Unlike "King Lear," "The Tempest" never shows death by drowning. While "King Lear" addresses land division and fuels much of the plot, there are sea storms and oceanic references, including four places in the play where the earth gives way to the sea.

On the ecological aspect of the ocean, Mentz provided "The Five Rules of a Blue Cultural Studies."

The rules include: "The world is not our home," "Ecology won't keep us dry," The ocean rules the weather," "Our only inexhaustible resource is language" and "Shakespeare isn't dead. He isn't even past."

People continue to examine the importance and meaning of the ocean today, and Mentz said that he hopes "students would look in their reading and writing for representations of the natural world."

Stephanie Castaldi, a freshman, enjoyed the lecture. "I thought it was great," she said. "I grew up in Rhode Island and with the ocean. I love the ocean and I've read 'The Tempest.'"

Debrianne Johnson, a senior, also appreciated the topic. "I thought it was really innovative how he incorporated the ocean with Shakespeare," she said.

The university only offers the course in the spring semester and professors Matthew Frankel and Martha Rojas organize the lectures.

There are two more lectures in the series. On March 24, professor Matthew Frankel presents on "Meditation by the Sea," and on April 7, professor Talvi Ansel will discuss "Archipelago and Other Works.