Transplant from Tennessee: The Last Lesson with Beloved Professor Robert Sawyer

As an online student, I don’t expect much interaction with my professors and classmates, but that wasn’t the case for Professor Robert Sawyer’s online Shakespeare class. When I initially signed up for the summer session, I was dreading it because I thought the Bard was only for sophisticated “intellectuals” and I knew next to nothing about the famous playwright. Anyone teaching it must not have interests that parallel those of a student like me. Then I watched the class’s introductory video, which opened with the message, “This is not your parents’ Shakespeare,” as a portrait of the playwright in rose-colored sunglasses flashed across the screen (courtesy of Professor Michael Briggs). Professor Sawyer proved me wrong; Shakespeare is for everyone, and if you “Titus Andronicus,” then you know that the piece contains as much blood and tension as in modern horror filmsand “Twelfth Night”, has just as much “tea” as “Bridgerton” and “The Real Housewives of Atlanta.”

Every Monday we voluntarily gathered via Zoom to discuss some of Shakespeare’s most famous plays, such as ‘Hamlet’, ‘The Tempest’ and ‘Macbeth’.

“I wasn’t a fan of Shakespeare until I saw a performance of “Hamlet” “At university,” muses Professor Sawyer.

He also taught us that Shakespeare is relatable and that the plays touch on many facets of human nature, such as the search for identity, forgiveness, family conflict and grief. Professor Sawyer affirmed that Shakespeare “is still so relevant… think of all the films that have been based on his plays recently that aren’t even Shakespeare.” One of the most recent films is the raunchy romcom “Everyone but you,” starring Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell. It is based on the play “Much Ado About Nothing.”

Professor Sawyer retired on Friday, August 23, 2024, after teaching Shakespeare and literary criticism to over 1,000 students at ETSU for 22 years. His final class was taught online this past summer.

“He is the most thoughtful and inspiring teacher I could have had at ETSU, he reminded me of my love of literature in ways I had forgotten. It is so sad to see him retire because I feel like he has so much more to teach students, but his legacy and teachings at ETSU will live on, even beyond himself,” said Marissa Franklin, a junior English major.

After the renovation of Burleson Hall, Professor Sawyer’s door still stands, a symbol of his influence on our school and a reminder to students to open the proverbial doors of life, because “the world is your oyster.” He is very proud of his students and credits the most rewarding part of his teaching career with seeing one of his first students at ETSU, Erin Presley, earn a tenured position as an English instructor at Eastern Kentucky University.

Photo of Dr. Robert Sawyer’s door at Burleson Hall. (Contributed by Amy Helmendach)

From posthumanism to bitcoin and blockchain to Bob Dylan and Dolly Parton, Sawyer is also an avid scholar and prolific writer on all things Shakespeare and “appropriation.” He helps establish Shakespeare’s malleability and relevance in many societal spheres, including the American South. Professor Sawyer worked with ETSU students to demonstrate the parallels between the South and the Bard in his essay, “Country Matters: Shakespeare and Music in the American South,” referencing Dolly Parton’s song, “Romeo,” and Hank Williams Sr., who was also known as the “Hillbilly Shakespeare.” Nashville band Diamond Rio is also cited for their song, “This Romeo Ain’t Got Julie Yet,” which inspired an alternative happy ending by “Romeo and JulietHe jokingly fears that the essay’s popularity “will end up on his tombstone.”

Professor Sawyer has also contributed to Shakespeare scholarship on a global level by organizing and chairing conferences around the world, including Barcelona, ​​Stratford-Upon-Avon, Montreal, and Poland. In 2010, Sawyer received a prize that provided him with the resources to write his book, “Marlowe and Shakespeare: The Critical Rivalry.” In 2019 he published “Shakespeare Between the World Wars: The Anglo-American Sphere,” where relevant connections are made with today’s political climate.

In his retirement, Professor Robert Sawyer and his wife, Professor Danielle Byington, performed a blessing of the rings ceremony at Holy Trinity Church in Stratford, where Shakespeare is buried. He is co-editing a book on Shakespeare and Bob Dylan, which includes a chapter on the Rolling Thunder Revue, illustrating the parallels between the travelling musician and the Bard’s noisy venues. He is also planning to work on a bio-fiction book about Christopher Marlowe, a contemporary of Shakespeare’s, who wrote Dr Faustus.

I am grateful to have taken Professor Sawyer’s last class before he retired. However, he indicated that he might teach one or two more classes as an adjunct professor, so if you get the chance, as Shakespeare said, “(It) is not in our stars, / But in ourselves.”

Take the course.

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