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Write Now! with Messud and James Wood

 Tuesday, April 3rd 4:30-8:30PM—WRITE NOW! ON FICTION AND CRITICISM—reading/talk, reception & book-signing—with Claire Messud & James Wood, at 21c Museum & Hotel.   Wednesday, April 4th 12:00-4:00PM—WRITE NOW! ON FICTION AND CRITICISM—special workshop/class on the writing process—with Claire Messud & James Wood, at Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Smith Warehouse

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Fall 2018 Courses: Updated

 Hannah Arendt & the Human Condition Rob Mitchell ENG 890S.03  Wedn 11:45AM – 02:15PM, Allen 304I. Hannah Arendt’s 1951 publication of _The Origins of Totalitarianism_ established her as a key political theorist of the twentieth century. Though subsequent texts such as _Eichmann in Jerusalem_, _On Revolution_, and _On Violence_ further consolidated that reputation, texts such as _The Human Condition_ and _The Life of the Mind_ underscored the singularity and essentially uncategorizable nature of Arendt’s intellectual project, which though it encompassed, yet was by no means limited to, political theory and philosophy. It is in part this singularity of Arendt’s project that is responsible for the recent reemergence of her texts…

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Macchia versus Memory?

 Macchia versus Memory? Outlining Inner Images A lecture by Nicola Suthor (Yale University, History of Art, Department of Germanic Languages and Literatures) Monday April 16 5 pm reception at 4:30pm Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall Smith Warehouse, Bay 4 First Floor   Event Flyer  

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Character: Identification, Ethics, Ontology

 Part of PAL’s 2018 Young Scholars Workshop 4pm Reception, with books for purchase 4:30pm Keynote Lectures and discussion Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, First Floor   Amanda Anderson, Brown University: “Thinking With Characters” This paper will trouble any easy distinction between literary character and real character by taking seriously the literary representation of…

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CFP for Stanford/Duke Conference Poster

Submit Brief Bio and Abstract for CFP Stanford/Duke Conference

 The joint initiative of Duke’s PAL (Center for Philosophy, Art and Literature) and Stanford’s Phil+Lit (The Initiative in Philosophy and Literature) will be holding a conference 2018 at Stanford titled Interiorities: Reflecting Subjectivity and Sociality on April 27 – 28. We invite students at Duke to submit a brief bio and 250-word abstract by February 12, 2018. Participants will…

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Call for Applications for The PAL Young Scholars Workshop 2018

 PAL (Duke’s Center for Philosophy, Arts, and Literature) is delighted to announce its fifth Young Scholars Workshop, on March 22 and 23. The overarching topic for this year’s workshop is “Character: Identification, Ethics, Ontology.” The workshop seeks to explore the question of character in literary criticism and ethical debates from new angles. Our visiting speakers, and workshop leaders, are two of the most exciting literary critics in the United States today, namely Rita Felski (University of Virginia, Charlottesville) and Amanda Anderson (Brown University).   On Thursday March 22, Rita Felski and Amanda Anderson will give their public lectures, beginning at 4 p.m. These lectures are open to all. (You don’t…

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Spring 2018 Courses

 ENG 890S-03: Shakespeare, Tragedy, Ethics Sarah Beckwith “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 our acts of speech. What Shakespeare shares with all these thinkers is a profound attack on the moralization of…

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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 a reception Ahmadieh Lecture Hall Smith Warehouse, Bay 4, First Floor

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