PhD Student's Shakespeare Essay Wins Prize

Ph.D. candidate T.J. Moretti's "Misthinking the King: The Theatrics of Christian Rule in Henry VI, Part 3" is the winner of the 2009-2010 Dr. Joseph M. Schwartz Memorial Essay Prize.

The Schwartz Memorial Prize is awarded to the essay judged to be the best published in Renascence: Essays on Value in Literature over the last two years. The prize is worth $1,000. Moretti's winning essay, "Misthinking the King: The Theatrics of Christian Rule in Henry VI, Part 3" appeared in Renascence's Summer 2008 issue (Vol. 60, No. 4). The full text of the article is available through Academic Search Premier.

Moretti's essay reevaluates the paradox of Christian rule that takes center stage in Shakespeare's play. "I argue that Henry VI's Christian peacemaking challenges theatergoers to reconcile piety to sovereignty and manliness. With this vexing character, Shakespeare and his collaborators struggle to discover the theatrical possibilities of a monarch who prefers Christian humanist discourse to violent spectacles," says Moretti.

The essay is an early part of a dissertation chapter on the Henry VI plays. Moretti presented a similar argument on Henry VI, Part 2 at the 2009 Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo. Moretti is currently writing his dissertation, “ ‘Is this your manly service?’: Religion, Gender, and Drama in Early Modern England, 1560-1625,” under the direction of Ted Leinwand. Kent Cartwright, Kim Coles, Theresa Coletti, and Philip Soergel are also on the dissertation committee.