Olin HomeAboutLecture SeriesConferences Faculty

The John M. Olin Center for Inquiry into the Theory and Practice of Democracy


JOHN M. OLIN CONFERENCE

The Closing of the American Mind Revisited.

May 16-18, 1997

Introduction
Conference Schedule


Introduction

Allan Bloom's The Closing of the American Mind was published almost ten years ago. Greeted with uncommon measures of both praise and blame, it was, for some years, the focus of sometimes bitter controversy, especially (but not only) within the academy. Even today, The Closing of the American Mind is one of the central documents in continuing debates regarding the state of American universities, and indeed regarding the qualities of "the American mind" more generally. In retrospect, it seems that the book appeared more or less at the beginning of a period of renewed controversy regarding the politics of universities and the effect of ideas prevalent in the universities on American politics and culture -- and that it had some role in invigorating these debates. Much current talk about political correctness, the culture wars, relativism, feminism, rock music, race and ethnicity, identity politics, and even Generation X bears the mark of Allan Bloom's influence.

This conference will be a collective inquiry among the conference participants into the important issues raised in Allan Bloom's book, in the light of ten years of further experience and reflection. Although The Closing of the American Mind helps to frame the questions for this conference, the conference is not meant to celebrate this book or even to take the book itself as the principal object of inquiry. Allan Bloom described his book as "a meditation on the state of our souls, particularly those of the young, and their education." In the conference we will focus much of our attention on the nature of the generation (dubbed "Generation X") of students that has emerged in the decade since 1987. We will discuss the place of music and books in the lives of the young today, the character of their "relationships," their habits of thought, tastes, and passions, all considered in relation to their openness to liberal education and their preparation for democratic citizenship. We will also address questions raised by Bloom's argument about the obstacles to liberal education posed by contemporary American universities themselves, focusing in particular on the fate of literature in the academy. And we will discuss the influence on the American mind of the ideas recently prevalent in the universities (what he called "nihilism, American style").


Conference Schedule

Friday, May 16
The Theater, Ida Noyes Hall
1:00 p.m.

The Academy and the Polity
Chair: Steven Kautz, Dept. of Political Science, Emory University

The Left and the Liberal UniversityIra Katznelson,
Dept. of Political Science, Columbia University
Political CorrectnessHarvey C. Mansfield,
Dept. of Government, Harvard University

3:00 p.m.

The Character of "Generation X"
Chair: Amy Kass, Humanities Collegiate Division, The College, University of Chicago

The Young in History's Stream:
Generation X and the Survival of Tradition
Robert Fulford,
Columnist, The Globe and Mail
The Giants of My GenerationRohit Khanna,
Student in The College, University of Chicago
Taking Up the Slack:
Some Thoughts on Generation X
Diana Schaub,
Dept. of Political Science, Loyola College in Maryland

Saturday, May 17
Max Palevsky Cinema, Ida Noyes Hall
10:00 a.m.

The Teaching of Literature
Chair: Werner Dannhauser, Dept. of Political Science, Michigan State University<

Is There a Case for Teaching Literature?Frank Kermode,
Cambridge University
On the Future of the Humanistic Tradition in Literary CriticismJames Seaton,
Dept. of English, Michigan State University
Roundtable discussion with:Joyce Carol Oates,
Novelist and Dept. of Creative Writing, Princeton University

A. B. Yehoshua,
Novelist and Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago

The Theater, Ida Noyes Hall
2:00 p.m.

The Power of Books and Music in the Souls of the Young Chair: Robert Dawidoff, Department of History, Claremont Graduate School
Body and Soul:
the Musical Miseducation of Youth
Martha Bayles, Literary Editor, Wilson Quarterly
Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet:
Generation X Goes to Shakespeare
Paul Cantor, Dept. of English, University of Virginia
Blues for TomorrowStanley Crouch,
Columnist, New York Daily News

4:00 p.m.

Feminism and Identity in the Academy
Chair: Hillel Fradkin, Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago

Liberalism and the Pitfalls of IdentityK. Anthony Appiah, Dept. of Afro-American Studies and Philosophy, Harvard University
Feminism and EducationElizabeth Fox-Genovese, Dept. of History, Emory University

Sunday, May 18
The Theater, Ida Noyes Hall

10:00 a.m.

"Nihilism, American Style"?
Chair: Nathan Tarcov, Committee on Social Thought and Dept. of Political Science, University of Chicago

Nihilism, American Style?Clifford Orwin,
Dept. of Political Science, University of Toronto
Bloom's International Theme:
American Universities and German Philosophers
Robert Pippin,
Committee on Social Thought University of Chicago

OTHER PARTICIPANTS

Peter Ahrensdorf, Dept. of Political Science, Davidson College
Walter Berns, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute
Christopher Nadon, Dept. of Political Science, Trinity College, Connecticut
Anne Norton, Dept. of Political Science, University of Pennsylvania
Richard Ruderman, Dept. of Political Science, U. of North Texas
Richard Zinman, Dept. of Political Science, Michigan State University


Olin HomeAboutLecture SeriesConferences Faculty


©1999 The John M. Olin Center for Inquiry into the Theory and Practice of Democracy, University of Chicago
Revised: December 12th, 1999
http://olincenter.uchicago.edu/closemind.html