Martin Distinguished Professor
Department of English
Office: 101 Thomas Hall
Phone: (308) 865-8117
E-mail: tassim@unk.edu
1993 Ph. D., Claremont Graduate School
1989 M. A., The University of Virginia
1987 B. A.. Columbia University
A native of Baltimore, Maryland, PROFESSOR MARGUERITE A. TASSI joined the faculty at the University of Nebraska-Kearney in 1997. Prior to that, she taught for two years at Middlebury College as a Visiting Assistant Professor in Dramatic Literature. Her scholarly and teaching interests focus on Shakespeare, ancient and early modern drama, aesthetics, ethics, relationships between visual culture and verbal texts, and the literature of revenge. She has published two books: The Scandal of Images: Iconoclasm, Eroticism, and Painting in Early Modern English Drama (Susquehanna UP, 2005) and Women and Revenge in Shakespeare: Gender, Genre, and Ethics (Susquehanna UP, 2011). Professor Tassi teaches a special course on Women and Revenge in Western Literature. The subject of her third book is queenship, maternal agency, and vengeance in early modern English drama. She was an invited speaker at the Interacting with Eros conference at the Universite de Paul-Valery in Montpellier, France in November 2008 and will speak at the Broken Images conference in Montpellier in November 2012.
Professor Tassi is the director of the Explorations Lecture Series, which features the intellectual and creative work of UNK faculty and visiting scholars/artists, and she organizes the Student Conference in Language and Literature for the English department. She is former director of the English Department's Graduate Program.
Women and Revenge in Shakespeare: Gender, Genre, and Ethics. Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press and Associate University Presses, 2011.
The Scandal of Images: Iconoclasm, Eroticism, and Painting in Early Modern English Drama. Selinsgrove: Susquehanna University Press and Associated University Presses, 2005.
"Wounded Maternity, Sharp Revenge: Shakespeare's Representations of Queens in Light of the Hecuba Myth," an article in Explorations in Renaissance Culture 37.1 (Summer 2011): 83-99.
“'Sportful Malice', or What Maria Wills: Revenge Comedy in Twelfth Night,” an article in The Upstart Crow: A Shakespeare Journal (Fall/Winter 2008).
“Women and Renaissance Theatrical Culture in England, Italy, and France,” a topical essay in Women in the Renaissance, A Historical Encyclopedia. Ed. Diana Robin, Anne R. Larsen, Carole Levin. ABC-Clio, 2007.
“Anne of Cleves” and “Levina Teerlinc,” biographical essays in Women in the Renaissance, A Historical Encyclopedia. Ed. Diana Robin, Anne R. Larsen, Carole Levin. ABC-Clio, 2007.
“‘O’erpicturing’ Apelles: Shakespeare’s Paragone with Painting in Antony and Cleopatra,” a chapter in Antony and Cleopatra, New Critical Essays. Ed. Sara Munson Deats. New York and London: Routledge, 2005, pp. 291-307.
“Shakespeare’s Playhouses, Inside and Out: Discoveries from the 2002 Summer NEH Institute.” Lead author, with Mary Jane Chaffee and Jennifer Matisoff. Shakespeare and the Classroom (November 2002): 12-19.
“Picturing Florence: The Role of Visual Perception in Nineteenth-Century English Representations of Florence,” a chapter in The Poetics of Place. Florence, Italy: Leo Olschki, 2001, pp. 27-52.
“Lover, Poisoner, Counterfeiter: The Painter in Elizabethan Drama.” The Ben Jonson Journal Vol. 7 (2000): 129-156. See Robert F. Fleissner’s response in his article, “‘Table Talk’,Elizabethan Painting and Falstaff’s Demise.” The Ben Jonson Journal Vol 9 (2002):1-7.
“‘O fair face’: The Aesthetic of the Portrait Miniature in John Lyly’s Campaspe.” Discoveries Vol. 17, no. 3 (Fall 2000): 1-2, 11-13.
“The Player’s Passion and the Elizabethan Painting Trope: A Study of the Painter Addition to Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy.” Explorations in Renaissance Culture Vol. 26, no. 1 (Summer 2000): 73-100.
“Shakespeare and Beckett Revisited: A Phenomenology of Theater.” Comparative Drama Vol. 31, no. 2 (Summer 1997): 248-76.
Pratt-Heins Award for Outstanding Teaching, UNK, 2009.
Mortar Board Award for Excellence in Teaching, UNK, 2009.
NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) Summer Grant, “Shakespeare’s Playhouses: Inside and Out,” an institute held at Staunton, VA and London, England, July 7-August 9, 2002.
Exceptional Performance Award, English Dept., UNK, based on outstanding performance in teaching and scholarship, 2001.
Mary Major Crawford Award in Shakespeare, English Dept., UNK, Shakespeare Studies, 1999, 2001.
KEYNOTE LECTURES AND INVITED PRESENTATIONS
“Wounded Maternity, Sharp Revenge: Shakespeare’s Representation of Margaret and Tamora in Light of the Hecuba Myth,” a keynote address given for the Queen Elizabeth Society at Exploring the Renaissance 2010, An International Conference, held at Corpus Christi, Texas, March 18-20, 2010.
“Enraptured by Images: Eros, Myth, and Violence in Macbeth,” an invited paper fo “Interacting with Eros: Erotic Mythology in Early Modern Drama and Renaissance Literature and Arts,” an international conference held at the Université Paul-Valéry, Montpellier, France, organized by the Institut de Recherche sur la Renaissance, l’Âge Classique et les Lumières, November 27-29, 2008.
“‘The very painting of your fear’: Imagination, Horrid Images, and the Masterpiece in Macbeth,” an invited paper for Medieval and Renaissance Studies at University of Nebraska-Lincoln, September 25, 2008.
“Deconstructing the Myth of the Hero: Sturla Gunnarsson’s Irreverent Beowulf and Grendel,” a presentation for a Sigma Tau Delta event, UNK, on adaptations of Beowulf, October 2006.
“Feuds and Vengeance in Beowulf,” a guest presentation in Dr. John Damon’s graduate seminar in Beowulf, UNK, Fall 2004.
COURSES FOR GRADUATE AND UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS
Women and Revenge in Western Literature; Shakespeare; Literature of the English Renaissance; British Literature Survey: Beowulf through Paradise Lost; Introduction to British Literature: Chaucer through Jane Austen; Ancient Literatures; Studies in Genre (Tragedy); Expository Writing II: Topics have included “Writing About Theater,” “Writing About the Mind,” “Brave New World of Cloning and Genetic Engineering”; Literary Classics of the Western World: Themes have included "Revenge in Literary Classics," "The Identity Crisis in Western Literature," "Literary Visions of Love in Classical and European Literature," "Fate, Free Will, and the Drama of Being from Sophocles to Stoppard."
NEH Summer Seminar (with Ralph Alan Cohen, Summer 2002)
Intensive, five-week seminar held at the Blackfriars playhouse in Staunton, VA and the Globe Theater in London; included theater workshops, performance experiences and directing opportunities; work with professional Shakespearean actors and directors; included a series of lectures and discussions with major scholars such as Stephen Booth, Alan Dessen, and Roslyn Knutson; a series of pedagogical sessions with Ralph Alan Cohen, the director of the seminar; attendance at numerous Shakespeare productions in the theaters; paper presentation of my own work as a co-director and scholar of The Taming of the Shrew.
Dramaturg and Verse Coach: Production of Macbeth, UNK, directed by Janice Fronczak, performed on April 21-25, 2004.
Workshops Taught for Actors at UNK: "Actor's Workshop for Taming of the Shrew, 2.1," "Playing Othello: 3.3 and 5.4,” “Preparing Shakespeare’s Text,” “Versification and Rhythm in Shakespeare.”