Prof. Rita Copeland

16:20, Sat 7 Apr 2012

Rita Copeland, Professor of Classical Studies and English at the University of Pennsylvania, talks about the reception of Aristotle's 'Rhetoric' in medieval Europe and how she finds appeal in its subsequent, long-term impact. She discusses its focus on emotions and explains the absence of moral judgements by its practical focus on achieving catharsis in the audience. She also explains why she thinks everyone should read Erich Auerbach's study of literary thought, 'Mimesis: the Representation of Reality in Western Literature', and the attempt by Ernst Robert Curtius to present a unified literary heritage to post-war Europeans, 'European Literature in the Latin Middle Ages'.

(MP3 format, 8.9 MB)

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