Hello from sunny Florida!
Seriously, I am in Florida with my family. But I wanted to promote an event that the English Undergrad Association is putting on next week. This is our first major discussion event of the academic year and it promises to be great. Please join Profs. Richard Cross, Carla Peterson and others (TBD) and the EUA for a discussion of
Literature and Identity: Discovering the Self and the Other?
The event will take place on Wednesday, November 28th in 1119 Susquehanna at 4pm. As always, food will be served. Our discussions are just that…not lectures, but discussions and an opportunity for you to engage meaningfully with the professors about pertinent issues and then talk to them over snacks and drinks. Some of the issues we might discuss are:
Literature and Identity
–How is identity mediated and understood through the lens of literature? On a personal/individual level? On a political/communal level?
How does literature shape our identities? How do our identities shape our literary careers (as writers and/or readers)?
– To what extent is stepping outside oneself in writing and envoicing what could be termed the “Other” an exercise of empathy and to what extent is it an act of exploitation? What about as readers? Can we hope to better understand the “Other” through literary engagement?
W.G. Sebald, William Styron, William Faulkner, Julia Peterkin, even Shakespeare
– Do we look to literature to affirm or challenge our personal and political notions of ourselves? Would an ideal curriculum do one or the other? Does literature challenge identity politics while promoting self-realization? Vice versa?
– How do we measure/describe “authenticity” in literature?
– What role if any do the identities (identity politics) of the author have in a literary work? In our interpretation of that work?
Hope to see you all there! Email me for more info.
