HONR-2150 : Writers in the Public Sphere

From the beginnings of recorded history, people have carefully wrought language, in both oral and written forms, for a variety of social purposes. Some, like the bards of Celtic Ireland, or the shamans of various indigenous peoples, or the poet laureates of our more contemporary times, served as official spokespersons for their peoples and sought to memorialize the stories, beliefs, and customs of their times. For others, like Du Fu and the Confucian poets of T'ang Dynasty China, or John Donne and the Inns of Court coterie poets of Early Modern England, writing poems was a way to demonstrate one's fitness for public office; it allowed prospective employers to gauge one's wit and rhetorical savvy. Singers, lyricists, and writers of lays and other forms celebrated and challenged the cultural conventions and assumptions of their times. Dramatists from multiple time periods and nations treated the world as a stage onstage and so furthered the public discourse on a variety of subjects, from politics and religion to gender relations and social norms. For still others, like John Milton or the satirists of the 18th century, writing became a way of speaking truths the world may not wish to hear. This seminar Introductionduces several significant voices to illustrate the range of ways writers participated in the public sphere right up to the age of revolutions that began in the late 18th century.