Event Details

Why do we care about literature? Why was literature invented? Why was this invention preserved? How has literature developed over time and across cultures? How has it benefitted us, and how might we continue to benefit from it? And how might we distinguish literature from other forms of culture? In the midst of a “crisis of the humanities,” this conference aims to explicate - or interrogate - thesignificance of these questions, good answers to them no longer being taken for granted. Welcoming p

Why do we care about literature? Why was literature invented? Why was this invention preserved? How has literature developed over time and across cultures? How has it benefitted us, and how might we continue to benefit from it? And how might we distinguish literature from other forms of culture? In the midst of a “crisis of the humanities,” this conference aims to explicate - or interrogate - the significance of these questions, good answers to them no longer being taken for granted. Welcoming papers across a wide range of topics, we hope to articulate why and how we value literature - in ways that may be inspiring or impotent, transformative or treacherous, surprising or spurious.