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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? Is it possible to teach ethics? What does it mean to live with others, when we do not (always) inhabit the same world? Coetzee’s Elizabeth Costello engages these profound ethical questions in and through its very form. Whereas critics have suggested that the formal strategies of the novel are intended either to take up or…

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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 upcoming events for graduate students!  

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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 David Palumbo-Liu (Stanford) will give a keynote address at 10am. His latest book is “The Deliverance of Others: Reading Literature in a Global Age.” At 11:15am, a panel of Duke faculty will continue the conversation: miriam cooke (AMES), Ranjana Khanna (English & Literature), Priscilla Wald (English & Women’s Studies), and David Wong (Philosophy). Everyone is…

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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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Writing Is Thinking IV

 PAL is proud to announce Writing Is Thinking IV Co-sponsored by the English Department and the Graduate School Our biannual writing event for academic writers is happening again! As usual, all graduate students are particularly welcome!   Patricia Hampl will speak on “First Person Singular: Voice as an Aspect of Thinking” Venue: Ahmadieh Family Lecture Hall, Smith…

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