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Comment by Lee Carleton on March 25, 2009 at 8:42am

Check my recent blog posting on a recent NYT Magazine article about Facebook that suggests some interesting questions about identity and a trio of texts to explore.

Comment by Louis Schwartz on October 8, 2008 at 1:01pm

I should add that this year's marathon commemorates Milton's 400th birthday, which comes this December (officially).

Louis

Comment by Louis Schwartz on October 8, 2008 at 12:50pm

Milton Marathon Reading

On Saturday October 25th, the English Department and the students currently enrolled in the Seminar on John Milton (English 400) at the University of Richmond will hold a marathon, all-night reading of Paradise Lost.

The reading will begin at 7:30 in the Whitehurst Living Room, in Whitehurst Hall (near the Richmond College Dorms), and will continue through dawn the following morning. Whitehurst Hall is #51 on the campus map: http://www.richmond.edu/visit/directions/campusmap.pdf

All are welcome to participate in the reading. Simply feel free to join the readers’ circle and to stay for all or just part of the night. Bring a copy of the poem, if you have one. Copies will also be available at the reading, if you don’t! Light refreshments (and lots of coffee!) will be available, but feel free to bring your own to share.

For more information, please contact Louis Schwartz at the University of Richmond (phone: 804-289-8315 or email: lschwart@richmond.edu ).

Comment by Lee Carleton on September 5, 2008 at 1:01pm

"Bilateral Brain Processes for Comprehending Natural Language" by Mark Jung-Beeman

Comment by Lee Carleton on September 5, 2008 at 12:42pm

Recently I read "The Eureka Hunt" by Jonah Lehrer in the July 28, 2008 New Yorker an article about sudden moments of insight and what recent brain studies have discovered about how and when they happen. Aside from its value for teaching in general, the article contained a brief reference about the intellectual value of literary studies - a value that some of our students tend to doubt.

Using fMRI technology, to see what happens in the brain when we do certain tasks. This imaging technology measures electricity and consequent blood flow in the brain and during moments of insight the anterior superior temporal gyrus or aSTG
(a small fold on the surface of the right hemisphere) shows dramatic increases in activity. Citing studies by Mark Jung-Beeman of Northwestern, Lehrer goes on to note "A few previous studies had linked the area to aspects of language comprehension such as the detection of literary themes and the interpretation of metaphors...these linguistic skills, like insight, require the brain to make a set of distant and unprecedented connections."(43)

So, maybe language and literature aren't as useless and impractical as they are sometimes billed by students eager to get required courses "out of the way" in a myopic rush towards career training.

After all, language is the foundation of all disciplines!