Literary Landscapes: What is a Literary Classic?
How do we define what is and is not a literary classic? Are literary prizes accurate indicators of a book’s classic status? Or is a more accurate measure of a classic a book that endures and demands rereading? The modernist poet and literary critic, T.S.Eliot argued that it was “only by hindsight, and in historical perspective that a classic can be known as such.” But what does this kind of retrospective evaluation mean for how we read now?
This talk explores these questions by ranging widely across Australian and Anglophone literary traditions and periods, from Alexis Wright to Charles Dickens.
About the speaker
Helen Groth is finishing a book on Riotous Lives and Literary Writing and has recently co-edited two collections, Writing the Global Riot: Literature in a Time of Crisis (Oxford University Press, 2023) and The Edinburgh Companion to Literature and Sound Studies (2024). She is Professor and Head of English and Creative Writing at UNSW where she currently teaches courses on Gothic Literature, Jane Austen and Reading Through Time. She is also co-director of the UNSW Literary Provocations Hub in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture.
Free event, bookings essential.
This talk explores these questions by ranging widely across Australian and Anglophone literary traditions and periods, from Alexis Wright to Charles Dickens.
About the speaker
Helen Groth is finishing a book on Riotous Lives and Literary Writing and has recently co-edited two collections, Writing the Global Riot: Literature in a Time of Crisis (Oxford University Press, 2023) and The Edinburgh Companion to Literature and Sound Studies (2024). She is Professor and Head of English and Creative Writing at UNSW where she currently teaches courses on Gothic Literature, Jane Austen and Reading Through Time. She is also co-director of the UNSW Literary Provocations Hub in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture.
Free event, bookings essential.
Location
Barry O'Keefe Library
605 Military Road, Mosman NSW 2088
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Literary Landscapes: What is a Literary Classic?
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