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Spring 2018 Course for PAL: Shakespeare, Tragedy, Ethics

 “Love”, says Iris Murdoch,” is the extremely difficult realization that something other than oneself is real. Love, and so art and morals, is the discovery of reality.” Murdoch’s wonderful claim conjoins art and morals through her parsing of love. This class is at once an exploration of the ethical implications of a vision of language explored in Wittgenstein, Stanley Cavell, Raimond Gaita, Peter Winch, Iris Murdoch, and Cora Diamond; and an exploration of Shakespeare’s plays, chiefly tragedies distinguished by the awesome fate of our acts of speech. What Shakespeare shares with all these thinkers is a profound attack on the moralization of morality. Tragic freedom in Shakespeare obviates moralism, though…

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Graduate Student Paper Presentations: Oct 19

 PAL is delighted to present two PAL Certificate papers by Duke graduate students. In Search of an Übersicht: Wittgenstein, Western Marxism, and the Future of Criticism Justin Mitchell (English), PAL Certificate Candidate Download paper Skepticism and Knowledge in Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener” Myles Oldershaw (English), PAL Certificate Candidate Download paper   Thurs Oct 19 5pm-6:30pm Followed by…

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Yi-Ping Ong: Embodiment, Embeddedness, Kindness

 “Embodiment, Embeddedness, and Kindness: Conditions of Reading and Living Together in Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello” Yi-Ping Ong (Johns Hopkins University)   Thursday Sept 21, 2017 4:30 Reception 5pm Lecture, followed by Q&A Ahmadieh Lecture Hall, C105 Smith Warehouse, Bay 4 Parking is free after 5pm   How do we come to share an ethical outlook with others?…

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Fall Kickoff: Graduate Student Happy Hour

 PAL Graduate Student Happy Hour Tuesday Sept 12, 5pm Ahmadieh Lecture Hall Smith Warehouse, Bay 4 Join us for drinks and hors d’oeuvres as we celebrate another year of graduate students at PAL. Learn more about the PAL Graduate Certificate and the five fall courses that count towards it. Hear about PAL’s 2017-2018 schedule, and our…

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Newly Added Fall 2017 Course: Rilke & Phenomenology, 1900-1926

 At the center of this seminar will be an in-depth exploration Rilke’s lyric oeuvre beginning with Das Stundenbuch (1899/1905) and Das Buch der Bilder (1902), extending via Neue Gedichte (1907) through his Duineser Elegien and Sonette an Orpheus (1922) and other late poetry. Additionally, we will take up some of Rilke’s prose writings on aesthetics, including his short monograph on Rodin (1902), his letters on Cézanne (1907), a few short prose pieces, and a selection of his far-flung and remarkably probing letters. Rilke’s overriding concern lies not with “things” as such, nor for that matter with their mimetic or specifically ekphrastic “representation.” Rather, his poetry (especially in Neue Gedichte and beyond) is concerned with capturing the way that perception of things and…

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The Other: Interdisciplinary Explorations

 Friday September 8, 2017 10am-3pm Lunch provided Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall Smith Warehouse, Bay 4 First Floor How useful is the concept of the Other in the humanities today? A conference organized by the PAL/FHI Mellon Seminar on “The Other” In this one-day conference on the topic of “The Other” in philosophy and literature, Professor…

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Fall 2017 Courses

 Five PAL courses will be offered Fall 2017.  Comparative Modernism across the Arts, Corina Stan and Gabriel Richard Wittgenstein and Literary Theory, Toril Moi Film-philosophers/Film-makers, Markos Hadjioannou Stimmung and Film Aesthetics, Inga Pollmann (UNC) Rilke and Phenomenology, 1900-1926, Thomas Pfau Details (including course numbers) are included below. ……………….. Comparative Modernism across the Arts Instructors: Corina Stan and Gabriel Richard Time: Wed 4:40-7:10 Cross-lists: English, Romance Studies, French, Literature, German, Music, International Comparative Studies Note: This is a collaboration between Dr. Corina Stan (Assistant Professor in English) and Gabriel Richard (Visiting Professor in Romance Studies, First Violin in the Paris Orchestra, First Violin of the Thymos Quartet). No pre-requisites; students will…

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