Join English professor Dr. David Hobbs as he presents
What Do We Do
In this talk, Dr. Hobbs will discuss the goals of literary study, how they have changed over the past century and how they will continue to change in the coming years. Emphasizing the (often surprising) relationship between aesthetic appreciation and ethical imperatives, this talk will argue for the importance of our own, individual sense of "taste" and for the value of continuing to develop that sense throughout our lives. BE WARNED: this talk will include poetry.
David B. Hobbs is an assistant professor of English at the University of Lethbridge (Canada). He has articles in Modernism/modernity, the Journal of Modern Literature, English Studies and elsewhere, and he writes frequently for The Nation and the Times Literary Supplement. He is the editor of 21 Poems by George Oppen (New Directions 2017) and — with Richard Sieburth — Tempus Tacendi: The Venice Notebooks of Ezra Pound & Olga Rudge (New Directions, forthcoming), and he is currently completing his first book, What Can You Do Alone? Lyric Sociality and the Global Depression.