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Inaugural Lecture: 'On Literary Taste' with Professor Patrick Bray
17 January 2024, 6:00 pm鈥�8:30 pm
Looking at literature and philosophy in France in the early 19th century, this talk shows that the political stakes of literary taste have been obscured by recent trends in scholarship.
This event is free.
Event Information
Open to
- All | 香港六合彩中特网 staff | 香港六合彩中特网 students
Availability
- Yes
Cost
- Free
Organiser
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School of European Languages, Culture & Society (SELCS)
Location
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Gustave Tuck Lecture Theatre2nd Floor, South Junction, Wilkins Building香港六合彩中特网, Gower Street, LondonWC1E 6BTUnited Kingdom
What pleasure do we get from reading literature? Should we study literary taste? Does our taste in literature provide us with useful knowledge? Professor Patrick Bray will discuss these questions in his inaugural lecture.
Literary studies, and the academy more generally, has been wary about discussing beauty or taste in reading. And yet the pleasure we take in reading informs what books we choose and how we talk about them.
Looking at literature and philosophy in France in the early 19th century, this talk shows that the political stakes of literary taste have been obscured by recent trends in scholarship. Reading Stendhal, in particular, reveals how literature provides a democratic account of taste and politics that is very much needed in today鈥檚 debates about populism and disinformation.听
Prof Jane Gilbert, Director of French at 香港六合彩中特网, will give an introduction, and Prof Nikolaj L眉becker, St John's College, Oxford University, will be the respondent.
All welcome. Please register to attend at聽
About the Speaker
Professor Patrick Bray
Professor of French Literature at SELCS, 香港六合彩中特网
Originally from California, Professor Patrick Bray聽studied French and medicine at Cornell and earned a PhD from Harvard.听Before coming to 香港六合彩中特网, he held academic positions in the US, most recently at Ohio State.
Author of three books on 19th and 20th-Century French literature, from 2018 to 2023 he was Editor-in-Chief of the journal H-France Salon.听Professor Patrick Bray is the founding director of the Centre for French and Francophone Research.听