Introduction to Theory of Literature with Professor Paul H. Fry

This is a full, 26 lecture course on literary theory from Yale University, and taught by Prof. Paul H. Fry.  It offers a survey of the main trends in twentieth-century literary theory. Lectures will provide background for the readings and explicate them where appropriate, while attempting to develop a coherent overall context that incorporates philosophical and social perspectives on the recurrent questions: what is literature, how is it produced, how can it be understood, and what is its purpose?

This Yale College course, taught on campus twice per week for 50 minutes, was recorded for Open Yale Courses in Spring, 2009.  Lecture titles are listed after the jump.

Art as Knowledge: The Unspeakable Subject of Hieronymus Bosch



A fascinating talk by Joseph Leo Koerner, Victor S. Thomas Professor at the Department of History of Art and Architecture, Harvard University.

This talk, given on January 20, 2009 at the Institute for Advanced Study, discusses the work of Hieronymus Bosch, and his famous triptych The Garden of Earthly Delights in particular.  This is an original reading of an exceptional work, and the speaker meditates on the representation of relationship between desire, sin and the self as the unspeakable subject.  The talk (about 60 mins) is available here.

From the time of its original display through the present day, the subject of Hieronymus Bosch’s so-called “Garden of Delights” has eluded audiences. In a lecture devoted to what is arguably the most enigmatic work in the history of art, Joseph Leo Koerner, Victor S. Thomas Professor of Art and Architecture at Harvard University, examines why Bosch’s subject was made deliberately unspeakable. The lecture is part of the Art as Knowledge series, which features talks by leading art historians on the subject of how art develops and conveys knowledge.  The respondent for the lecture was Christopher Heuer, Assistant Professor of Art and Archaeology at Princeton University and one of the organizers of the Art as Knowledge series.

 

Changing Education Paradigms

For educators everywhere:

Anothet RSA Aminate, this time from Sir Ken Robinson, world-renowned education and creativity expert and recipient of the RSA’s Benjamin Franklin award.

Robinson has some radical things to say about the problems of education and how they should be changed.

Joseph Nye on Power

Influential historian and diplomat Joseph Nye gives us a view of the shifts in power between China and the US, and the global implications as economic, political and, in particular, “soft” power,  shifts and moves around the globe.

For those interested in these and other issues relating to power I recommend the Journal of Power (pubished by Routledge and soon to become the Journal of Political Power) which addresses the concept of power from a variety of perspectives, including social, political, cultural and economic power.