Dean of the College Presents
Faculty Seminar
The Logic of Wish and Fear: New Perspectives on Genres of Western Fiction
Presented by Ben La Farge
I was an undergraduate when I discovered that Aristotle may have written a "Poetics" on Comedy to match his famous Poetics on Tragedy. From that time on I was determined to see if I could write a Poetics as original and useful as his. But I had to master the other theories of literary art before I could achieve that ambition. It has taken me 60 years. Several aspects of my book are quite original, although they owe a good deal to Aristotle, Hegel, and Northrop Frye among others. I have not yet decided which of my ideas might be of the greatest interest to our audience, but I will probably read from one of the following--my theory of comedy as game-playing, my concept of the emotional logic of wish and fear, my analysis of feminist comedy, my analysis of Kafka's novella, "The Metamorphosis," or my concept of "mythic fiction" focused on "Huckleberry Finn" and others.
Please join us for dessert and coffee in the Olin Atrium at 6:45 p.m., immediately following the President's reception, and prior to the seminar at 7:00 p.m.
For more information, call 845-758-7490, or e-mail [email protected].
Location: Olin Humanities, Room 102