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The Closing of the American Mind Revisited. May 16-18, 1997 |
Introduction |
Conference Schedule |
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").
Friday, May 16
3:00 p.m.
Saturday, May 17
A. B. Yehoshua,
The Theater, Ida Noyes Hall
4:00 p.m.
Sunday, May 18
©1999 The John M. Olin Center for Inquiry into the Theory and Practice of Democracy, University of Chicago
Introduction
The Theater, Ida Noyes Hall
1:00 p.m.
Chair: Steven Kautz, Dept. of Political Science, Emory University
The Left and the Liberal University Ira Katznelson,
Dept. of Political Science, Columbia UniversityPolitical Correctness Harvey C. Mansfield,
Dept. of Government, Harvard University
Chair: Amy Kass, Humanities Collegiate Division, The College, University of ChicagoThe Young in History's Stream:
Generation X and the Survival of TraditionRobert Fulford,
Columnist, The Globe and MailThe Giants of My Generation Rohit Khanna,
Student in The College, University of ChicagoTaking Up the Slack:
Some Thoughts on Generation XDiana Schaub,
Dept. of Political Science, Loyola College in Maryland
Max Palevsky Cinema, Ida Noyes Hall
10:00 a.m.
Chair: Werner Dannhauser, Dept. of Political Science, Michigan State University<Is There a Case for Teaching Literature? Frank Kermode,
Cambridge UniversityOn the Future of the Humanistic Tradition in Literary Criticism James Seaton,
Dept. of English, Michigan State UniversityRoundtable discussion with: Joyce Carol Oates,
Novelist and Dept. of Creative Writing, Princeton University
Novelist and Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago
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 YouthMartha Bayles, Literary Editor, Wilson Quarterly Baz Luhrmann's Romeo and Juliet:
Generation X Goes to ShakespearePaul Cantor, Dept. of English, University of Virginia Blues for Tomorrow Stanley Crouch,
Columnist, New York Daily News
Liberalism and the Pitfalls of Identity K. Anthony Appiah, Dept. of Afro-American Studies and Philosophy, Harvard University Feminism and Education Elizabeth Fox-Genovese, Dept. of History,
Emory University
The Theater, Ida Noyes Hall
10:00 a.m.
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 TorontoBloom's International Theme:
American Universities and German PhilosophersRobert Pippin,
Committee on Social Thought University of ChicagoOTHER 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
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