On April 16, Boston College will hold a symposium to mark the English-language publication of Doctor Levitin, a novel by David Shrayer-Petrov, edited and co-translated by BC Professor Maxim D. Shrayer. The event will feature an academic panel, a reading, and a panel on literary translation. The symposium will take place from 4 to 7 p.m. in Devlin Hall, 101. Sponsors: Institute for the Liberal Arts; Jewish Studies Program; Department of Slavic and Eastern Languages and Literatures; Program in East European Studies. See flyer for event details.
Refusenik literature
Intercollegiate poetry festival
Students representing 24 Boston-area colleges and universities will read from their original poetry at the 2019 Greater Boston Intercollegiate Undergraduate Poetry Festival being held at Boston College April 16. Meg Kearney, founding director of the Solstice MFA in Creative Writing Program of Pine Manor College, will be the keynote speaker. Her collection of poems, Home By Now, was winner of the 2010 L. L. Winship/PEN New England Award and also a finalist for the Paterson Poetry Prize and Foreword Magazine‘s Book of the Year. A chapbook of poetry written by participating students will be published in conjunction with the event. The BC student chosen to participate in the festival is Sabrina Black, Class of 2019, who will recite her poem, “From Our Family to Yours.” The festival begins at 7:30 p.m. in the Yawkey Center’s Murray Function Room. Sponsors: Poetry Days and Boston College Magazine.
Translating Aristotle
For more than two thousand years, Aristotle’s Art of Rhetoric has shaped thought on the theory and practice of the art of persuasive speech. Aristotle defends rhetoric as an art and a crucial tool for deliberative politics while also recognizing its capacity to be misused by unscrupulous politicians to mislead or illegitimately persuade others. A new translation of Aristotle’s treatise by Behrakis Professor in Hellenic Political Studies Robert C. Bartlett takes into account important alternatives in the manuscript and is fully annotated to explain historical, literary, and other allusions. Bartlett’s translation, Aristotle’s “Art of Rhetoric” (University of Chicago Press, 2019), also includes an interpretive essay. An expert in classical political philosophy, Bartlett also is the author of Sophistry and Political Philosophy: Protagoras’ Challenge to Socrates.
Ireland and Shakespeare
Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies Patrick Lonergan will present “Shakespeare and the Modern Irish Theatre: Staging Anglo-Irish Relations from 1916 to Brexit,” on April 10 at 4:30 p.m. in the Burns Library’s Thompson Room. A professor of drama and theatre studies at the National University of Ireland, Galway, Lonergan has written or edited 12 books on Irish drama, exploring how current events and societal trends influence the way drama is conceived, staged, and interpreted, and the impact this has on public views on political or social issues. At BC, he is teaching the course Theater and Globalization—examining how the growth of world theater has shaped the work of dramatists in an expanded literary marketplace. His lecture will examine the connections between Shakespeare, Irish theater, and Irish-Anglo relations. Read a Q&A with Lonergan from the Boston College Chronicle.
Posted in Guest Authors
Tagged Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies, Ireland, Shakespeare
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The Dead
The BC German Studies Program will present a reading from The Dead by Swiss author Christian Kracht on April 10 at 5:30 p.m. in Devlin Hall, room 101. The reading will be followed by a conversation with his translator Assistant Professor of German Studies Daniel Bowles, moderated by Assistant Professor of Romance Languages and Literatures Wan Tang. According to the publisher, The Dead “mines the feverish film culture of the 1930s to produce a Gothic tale of global conspiracy, personal loss, and historical entanglements large and small.” Event co-sponsors are the Institute for the Liberal Arts and the Morrissey College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Office.
Posted in Boston College Authors, Guest Authors
Tagged German Studies, novel, translation
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Bloodshed, borders and Brexit
Historian Alvin Jackson, who served as the 1996-97 Burns Visiting Scholar in Irish Studies at Boston College, will present “The Survival of the United Kingdom, 1707-2017: Bloodshed, Borders and Brexit” on Apr. 10 at 7 p.m. in Gasson Hall, room 100. Jackson, whose research focuses on modern Irish, Scottish, and British history, is the Richard Lodge Professor of History at the University of Edinburgh. He is the author of several books, including The Two Unions: Ireland, Scotland, and the Survival of the United Kingdom, 1707-2007; The Ulster Party, 1884-1911, and Ireland 1798-1998: Politics and War. His talk is presented by the Lowell Humanities Series with the Irish Studies Program and by the Gerson Family Lecture Fund, established by John A. and Jean N. Gerson, P’14.
Chicago’s Cabrini-Green
Ben Austen, the author of High-Risers: Cabrini-Green and the Fate of American Public Housing (HarperCollins, 2018), will give a talk at 6 p.m. on April 9 in Gasson Hall, room 301. Austen’s book, the story of Chicago’s public housing development, intertwines personal narratives, city politics, and national history. High-Risers has been compared to other literary non-fiction works such as Evicted, The Warm of Other Suns, Common Ground, and There Are No Children Here. Austen’s writing has appeared in the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, GQ, and New York magazine, among other publications. Read an interview with Austen in the Chicago Tribune. Sponsors: The Winston Center for Leadership and Ethics, The Joseph E. Corcoran Center for Real Estate and Urban Action, and the Institute for the Liberal Arts.
Wolves of Eden
Author Kevin McCarthy, a Boston College alumnus, will read from his latest work, Wolves of Eden (W.W. Norton & Co., 2018), on Apr. 9 at 5:30 p.m. in Higgins Hall, room 310. Wolves of Eden is a historical fiction novel about Irish immigrants serving in the U. S. army in 1866 in the Dakota territory. It was named one of Amazon’s Best Books of 2018. The Irish Times called Wolves of Eden “a compelling tale” and “a brutal, blood-soaked and unsentimental account of the Old West that bears comparison with Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian.” McCarthy is also the author of Peeler, which was selected by the Irish Times as one of its Top Ten Thrillers of 2010 and as a Read of the Year by the Philadelphia Inquirer, and Irregulars, which was shortlisted for the Ireland AM Crime Fiction Book of the year in 2013. McCarthy’s reading is co-sponsored by the Creative Writing Concentration and Irish Studies.
A Prisoner’s Tears
Professor Emeritus of Theology Harvey D. Egan, S.J., has played an instrumental role in the publication of two works by a man who has been incarcerated for more than 40 years. Fr. Egan copyedited and helped to get published two books written by David Ansgar Nyberg. A Puddle of Light: A Prisoner’s Tears (Lambert Academic Publishing, 2018) is described as “reminiscent of the prison literature of Oscar Wilde, Ezra Pound, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Jr., and others—and with a style often poetic and sometimes humorous.” Nyberg’s other book, Broken: The Myth of Equity in American Jurisprudence (Lambert Academic Publishing, 2019), “demonstrates how the judicial doctrine of the Dred Scott decision is the same judicial philosophy of strict constructionism, the dominant judicial policy of contemporary America.” Fr. Egan has been corresponding with Nyberg for more than a decade. According to Fr. Egan, Nyberg has degrees in law, history, and psychology. He is self-taught in Latin and Greek and is a voracious reader of philosophy, theology, history, and the history of languages. Nyberg’s books are available via MoreBooks.
Exonerated
Anthony Ray Hinton, who was exonerated after spending nearly 30 years on death row, will present “Surviving Criminal Justice in America” on Apr. 3 at 4:00 p.m. in the Murray Function Room at Yawkey Center. Hinton was wrongfully convicted of two 1985 murders in Alabama and sentenced to die. After an extended legal battle, his conviction was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court and ultimately the charges against him were dismissed. After his release, he wrote (with Lara Love Hardin) the bestselling book, The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life and Freedom on Death Row (St. Martin’s Press, 2018). The book, chosen as Oprah’s Book Club Summer 2018 Selection, has been called “an extraordinary testament to the power of hope sustained through the darkest times.” Hinton has become an advocate for reform in America’s criminal justice system and serves as the community educator for Equal Justice Initiative, the nonprofit organization that helped free him. Sponsors: Division of Student Affairs, Office of the Provost and Dean of Faculties, and University Mission and Ministry. A book signing will follow Hinton’s talk. Read an excerpt from Hinton’s book in The Guardian.
BC Bookmarks 