By focusing on the work of lecturing – a practice not often considered within literary studies – this essay makes an argument for how Auden's public speaking during the WWII period impacts and alters his poetry. I show how Auden's... more
By focusing on the work of lecturing – a practice not often considered within literary studies – this essay makes an argument for how Auden's public speaking during the WWII period impacts and alters his poetry. I show how Auden's anxieties regarding his proximity to political rhetoric of this period compel him to revise his method of public speech, first by making him shift to lecturing within an academic context, and second by having him turn to the indirect speech that inheres in allegory. Auden incorporates this allegorical mode of speaking, which he develops in his poem, 'The Sea and the Mirror', into his lectures for his postwar course on Shakespeare at the New School for Social Research.
Methods of Reading Course Description: What are we looking for when we interpret a literary text? What should the final outcome of such a process be? What assumptions are present in our reading, even before we open a book?
Course Description: What does it mean for a person to have a disability? Who has the power to define such an experience? How does disability shape our social world and vice versa? What meanings are attached to it? Aimed at addressing... more
Course Description: What does it mean for a person to have a disability? Who has the power to define such an experience? How does disability shape our social world and vice versa? What meanings are attached to it? Aimed at addressing these and similar questions, this course starts from two related premises: the first is that, instead being just a biological fact or medical diagnosis, "disability" is a social and cultural designation with meanings that have developed over time; the second is that literature, that great record of the human experience, is one of the best places to examine these meanings and their implications for our daily lives.
Decadence is the language of excess--it generally means indulging well beyond the point of what is considered to be "healthy" or "good." In its preference for these extremes, in its desire to move past accepted limitations, decadence tips... more
Decadence is the language of excess--it generally means indulging well beyond the point of what is considered to be "healthy" or "good." In its preference for these extremes, in its desire to move past accepted limitations, decadence tips over into the language of decay and decline. (Etymologically, the word itself implies a kind of "falling away" from a previous state.) The decadent artist is thus one who goes against the grain of convention and the call of reason to hold up the virtues of the unhealthy, to find the beauty in the ruinous, and to put the value of art and aesthetics above all other needs. This capstone course is a focused investigation of such decadence as the primary impulse of art and literature during the final decades of the nineteenth century (a period known as the fin de siècle) in both Europe and England. It also examines the afterlife of decadence throughout the early twentieth century, where its lingering presence continues to express anxieties about, as well as celebrations of, the idea of cultural decline. Students in this capstone will each be tasked with completing a substantial research project on decadence, a subject that has seen something of a renewal of critical interest in recent years. As a capstone, this course-perhaps more than others-requires every student to take an active role in guiding the conversation and shaping their own research pursuits.
In 2010 UNESCO—the educational and cultural branch of the United Nations—named Dublin the fourth “City of Literature” as a part of an ongoing campaign to recognize the world’s most important cultural heritage sites. As the UNESCO website... more
In 2010 UNESCO—the educational and cultural branch of the United Nations—named Dublin the fourth “City of Literature” as a part of an ongoing campaign to recognize the world’s most important cultural heritage sites. As the UNESCO website puts it: “Dublin's universities; its vibrant book and publishing trade; its thriving contemporary literary scene; its libraries and its cultural, arts and social scene create a powerful image of the city as a place with literature at its core, and with cultural connectivity at every level” (http://www.dublincityofliterature.ie).
This course offers the chance to closely examine Dublin, the center of Irish cultural life and one of the world’s most important literary capitals. Our syllabus primarily focuses on modern Irish literature with the aim of putting Irish writers of the early twentieth century into conversation with those of the early twenty-first. In addition to analyzing texts that feature Dublin’s literary scene, students will have the opportunity to engage in their own first-hand exploration of the city through our study-abroad travels. The aim of our travel is twofold: first, to acquire a sense of how Dublin the place filters into the literature we’re reading in class; and, second, to think critically about how the city has developed an international reputation and burgeoning cultural industry around its literary resources.
