THE ANNUAL LITERARY LIFE CONFERENCE

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In the face of our current crisis of meaning, many have looked for answers in theology, philosophy, education, even politics. But what if the current crisis we are suffering under is really a crisis of language—one that reaches far beyond concern about the USES of language and instead revolves around the very nature and purpose of language itself?

The modern understanding of language considers words and meaning to be arbitrarily assigned and valueless in themselves. We are told that the value or danger of words comes from the use of those words. We use words to persuade, convince, advertise, argue, control, and manipulate. We ultimately believe that words give us power over other people, and in that power lies the true value of language. It is not words that have power, we believe, but the humans who wield them.

But, thinkers from Plato to the Inklings have argued for a much different and much deeper understanding of language. What if the real power of words comes from somewhere outside of us?

Words matter because in the beginning was the Word.

Join Angelina Stanford, Thomas Banks, Dr. Anne Phillips, Jenn Rogers, and Philologist Dr. Michael Drout as they explore different aspects of the question, "Why do words matter?"

Schedule

Wednesday, April 23rd at 7:00 PM ET: Dr. Michael Drout

"So tradition. Very meme. Much evolve. Wow!": (Oral) Tradition from Homer to the Doge Meme—and beyond!

The Iliad and the Odyssey are quite possibly the greatest of all literary works. The Doge meme includes a picture of a cute Shiba-Inu and some phrases written in Comic Sans. What could these two things possibly have in common? (Beyond being sublime creations of the human mind, of course). In this talk I will explain how noun-epithet formulas like the famous “Swift-footed Achilles,” “Hector of the Glancing Helm,” “Huge Telemonian Ajax,” “Gray-eyed Athena,” and “Apollo: who strikes from afar!” are fundamentally akin to Doge’s agrammatical statements like “so mystery,” “very pronounce,” “wow!” Doge memes, Homeric formulas, the “Beasts of Battle” in Anglo-Saxon poetry, and even the enigmatic Cats of Queen Berúthiel in The Lord of the Rings are what are called “traditional referents,” small bits of language that invoke larger contexts. Such referents evolve in traditions, particularly oral traditions, so we will also discuss how traditions themselves work, where they come from, and how we can better understand them—whether they are transcendent artworks from 800 B.C.E. or the 2013 “Meme of the year."

Thursday, April 24th at 7:00 PM ET: Angelina Stanford

The Abolition of Language and the Descent into Tyranny: Why Words Matter

Friday, April 25th at 7:00 PM ET: Dr. Anne Phillips

Undead Languages: Latin and Greek in the Language Wars

Saturday, April 26th at 12:00 PM ET (Session 1): Thomas Banks

Luminous Noses and Calico Pies: On Nonsense Poetry And Linguistic Fantasy

Saturday, April 26th at 2:30 PM ET (Session 2): Jenn Rogers, M.A.

Word Games: A Poet and a Mathematician Play in the Tradition

Click Each Speaker's Photo to Learn More About Them

Dr. Michael Drout

Angelina Stanford

Thomas Banks

Dr. Anne Phillips

Jenn Rogers, M.A.

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