Retiring English professor Peter Saccio reflected on life, literature and Lear as he bid farewell to students during an informal discussion Monday.
Saccio, the Leon D. Black professor of Shakespearean studies, is teaching his last English class at Dartmouth and will leave the College at the end of the term.
During the gathering, held in Sanborn's wood-paneled Shakespeare room, Saccio discussed his early life, his experiences at Dartmouth and his work.
Saccio attributed his passion for literature and history to a childhood challenge from his mother.
"When I was nine or 10, my mother made a deal with my sister and me. If we would promise not to buy or read comic books, she would buy each of us a proper book, and that meant a hardback in those days, once a month," Saccio said.
This system introduced him to a world of historical romance, intrigue and passion. These years, Saccio said, were marked by a fascination with the genealogical charts of European royalty as he read voraciously, delving into the stories of the Romanovs and the Hapsburgs.
When Saccio was first confronted with a Shakespeare play while attending boarding school in his teens, he felt comfortable with the context because of his knowledge of history.
"When I was first assigned Richard II to read, I already knew the characters, how they related and what they were fighting about," Saccio said. "What I didn't know was that they could speak so beautifully."
For Saccio, the choice to study Shakespeare was not a simple decision. While an undergraduate at Yale University, he was intimately involved with theater but was uncertain whether his future career would be in the performing arts.
With time, Saccio said his love for Shakespearean plays and for literature compelled him to continue his studies in this area.
"With that degree of absorption in any kind of fiction, with the added interest in theater, and since plays when performed add to the beauty of the language, it was inevitable that I would end up at Shakespeare," Saccio said.
While he did not pursue an acting career, Saccio has not left his theater background behind. He said he tries to fuse the arts and the material to create a singular teaching style that at once inspires and encourages discussion.
"The lecture is a performance," Saccio said dramatically. "I knew about performance."
Despite his comfort teaching a large lecture class, Saccio said his early years at Dartmouth shaped him into the professor he is today.
Saccio came to the College as an English professor directly from graduate school at Princeton University. While he was originally apprehensive about the classroom dynamic and interactions with students close to his own age, the lively academic environment offered an opportunity for him to learn from his colleagues.
Dartmouth's historical commitment to teaching and lecturing was a key factor in Saccio's growth as a professor, he said.
"Dartmouth has a tradition of good lecturing. The lecture is central to the idea of good teaching," Saccio said. "This is a place where teaching is taught about."
Saccio's teaching style is characterized by placing works in their historical framework, closely analyzing the text and eliciting an emotional response from the reader.
Saccio attempts to convey his passion for the plays he studies to each of his students.
"I am the kind of teacher who is deeply absorbed in the fiction, the story of what he is reading. I am interested in the extraordinary ability of writers to construct imaginative work," Saccio said. "When my students say of me, 'He makes the material come alive,' that is praise that I greatly value."
With his retirement imminent, Saccio said he looks forward to finishing his series of videotaped lectures on Hamlet, completing his essay on detective novelist Michael Nava and continuing his involvement in theater.
When asked what is next for him in life by one interested student, Saccio wryly said that he was unsure.
"That is what one tries to figure out at this stage of life," Saccio said. "You only get to retire once, and I'm trying to do it right."