Jahan Ramazani, October 4-5, 2007

Jahan Ramazani visits Grinnell in October 2007 to give the second Connelly Lectures in English. His first lecture, delivered to the campus community on October 4 at 8:00 p.m. in the Rosenfield Center 101, is titled "Poetry, Modernity, Globalization." On October 5 at 4:15 in the Forum South Lounge, Ramazani will speak to English majors on "Nationalism, Transnationalism, and the Poetry of Mourning." Details of the lectures' content follow.

"Poetry, Modernity, Globalization"

Poetry has often been seen as a more local and national genre than other genres. In this talk, Jahan Ramazani argues instead for a transnational approach to the study of poetry, particularly in the twentieth century. Drawing on examples from early twentieth-century modernism to late twentieth-century postcolonialism, he explores the impact of modernity's globalizing forces on the writing of poetry in English.

"Nationalism, Transnationalism, and the Poetry of Mourning"

"Nationalism, Transnationalism, and the Poetry of Mourning" Mourning, memorialization, nationalism--the political uses of mourning for the nation-state are everywhere to be seen. Elegies, or poems of mourning for the dead, have been used in the service of the nation, fostering nationalist identification with the dead and the ongoing life of the country. Yet elegies have also been used to form micro-communities of grief that cross national boundaries. Focusing on examples of elegies by W. B. Yeats and W. H. Auden, Jahan Ramazani explores the competing claims of nationalism, transnationalism, and anti-nationalism in mourning and the writing of elegies.