Humanities in the World Lecture

Literary study has lost ground within universities and with the general public because of two apparent failures. It doesn’t seem to produce research knowledge of the kind defined by the natural and physical sciences. It also appears not to help to solve public problems like climate change, structural racism, faltering technological innovation, or economic inequality. Speaker Christopher Newfield, Department of English, University of California/Santa Barbara, suggests ways we might think about the status of literary knowledge and the connections between literary criticism and the social sciences. In discussing one current economic problem, he argues that literary critics might best address political economy with theories of non-economic subjectivity that emerge from literary study itself.

“What is Literary Knowledge of Economy? How Does Criticism Help?”
Pembroke Hall 305
172 Meeting Street
5:30pm