Prof Calista McRae Talk - "Lyric (and Letters) as Comedy"

Prof Calista McRae (New Jersey Institute of Technology) will be visiting College in November and she will be giving a talk on her current research in the Neill Theatre of the Trinity Long Room Hub on Thursday the 9th of November at 3pm. Her talk will be of particular interest to students and scholars of modern and contemporary poetry and drama. Prof McRae's recent publications include essays on John Milton, John Berryman, A.R. Ammons and Robert Lowell in journals such as Modern Philology, the Arizona Quarterly, Milton Studies and Modernism/Modernity.

"Lyric (and Letters) as Comedy"

This talk explores what comic theories can fit a lyric frame. While the modern lyric is entangled with intense feeling, this entanglement glints with humour, just as intense feeling in our actual lives may be shot through with an element of comedy. Through glances at the correspondence and poetry of John Berryman, Robert Lowell, and others, I suggest that humour is central to these writers. In addition, lyric’s relatively unrecognized comedy can open up ways of thinking about humour more generally.

Prof McRae's visit to College is generously supported by the Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Social Science's Visiting Professors Fund for 2016-17.

Prof Calista McRae