SMU Symposium on Poetic Form
Southern Methodist University will host the SMU Symposium on Poetic Form on March 18 and 19, 2024. Jericho Brown will deliver the keynote reading; Jonathan Culler will deliver the keynote lecture. Plenary panels will feature Stephanie Burt, Virginia Jackson, Maureen McLane, Jahan Ramazani, Anthony Reed, and Evie Shockley. Other panels will consider topics such as Renaissance, eighteenth-century, and nineteenth-century poetics, historical poetics, the sonnet, “uncreative writing,” and prosody. More information can be found on the symposium website: https://blog.smu.edu/smu-symposium-on-poetic-form/
"So Careful of the Type": The Elaboration of Character and Life in Nineteenth-Century British Literature
Thursday, March 28, 2024
Dr. Cole Ryberg
Location: Hyer Hall 100Reception:5:00 pm
Lecture: 5:30 pm
Abstract:
In this presentation, I consider how texts make fictional characters individuals in nineteenth-century British literature. I begin with a literary-historical examination of character types through Theophrastus's Characters and Characters of Virtues and Vices by Joseph Hall. Then, with character types in mind, I briefly discuss characters' appearances in Gothic fiction, which dramatize the reader's process of coming to know characters. Lastly, I present readings of two novels by Charles Dickens, Oliver Twist and Our Mutual Friend, both of which exemplify the tension between characters' individualities and the things with which they are associated. By the end of the talk, I hope to broaden our conception of "types" and further demonstrate how they function in the production of lifelike characters. This topic will lead us more generally into a conversation on realism; the relationship between characters and objects; and my concerns in last semester's talk regarding language, space, and the reader's role in filling textual gaps.
On-Stage Craft Conversation, Topic: Craft and the Art of Poetry
Wednesday, April 3, 2024
Samyak Shertock
Valzhyna Mort
Location: Texana Room, Fondren Library
Lecture: 5:00 pm
2024 MELUS Conference: Roots/Routes of Resistance and Resilience
Date: April 11 - 14, 2024
Southern Methodist University’s Department of English is hosting this year’s MELUS conference on April 11-14. Keynote speakers will include Chang-rae Lee, Claudia Rankine, and David Roediger. Panels will be on topics related to multiethnic literatures of the United States, and will focus particularly on means of resisting and surviving oppression and adversity. More information can be found at the conference website: https://blog.smu.edu/2024melus/
Southwest Review Festival
Southwest Review Festival
Southwest Review Festival