The Sublime Experience Saturday, February 7, 2015 2:30-4:30 pm Past Event Watch the video » Prior to the eighteenth century, and before Edmund Burke’s foundational treatise, the sublime was understood as beauty and greatness beyond measure. Subsequently, awe, the emotion classically associated with the sublime, was given new psychological depth and even physiological dimensions, bringing fear and the grotesque into aesthetic considerations of the sublime. In Kantian aesthetics, the sublime exists beyond the realm of the sensible: beyond form and purpose, but not beyond morality. How might the nature of the sublime differ in relation to visual arts, music, religious experience, nature itself? What can religion and philosophy, as well as psychology and neuroscience, teach us about the distinction between an experience of pleasure and the ecstasy of the sublime? Participants: Paul Fry William Lampson Professor of English, Yale University Paul H. Fry is the William Lampson Professor of English and has taught at Yale since 1971. He received his BA from the University of California, Berkeley and his Ph. D. from Harvard. His primary areas of specialization are British romanticism, the history of literary criticism, contemporary literary theory, and literature in relation to the… read more » James Judd Conductor, Music Director of the Israel Symphony and the Little Orchestra Society James Judd is Music Director of the Israel Symphony and the Little Orchestra Society. Previous directorships include the New Zealand Symphony, the Orchestre National deLille, Adelaide Symphony and the Florida Philharmonic. A regular guest conductor with major orchestras around the globe, he leads an annual tour of Asia with the Asian Youth Orchestra, as an… read more » Alan Richardson Professor of English, Boston College Alan Richardson is Professor of English at Boston College. He holds degrees in English from Princeton University and Harvard University. A Romanticist by training, he has published extensively on the literature and culture of the British Romantic era, especially in relation to issues of gender, childhood and education, race and colonialism, and scientific psychology. Over… read more » Sandra Shapshay Associate Professor of Philosophy, Indiana University Sandra Shapshay earned her B.A. in Intellectual History from the University of Pennsylvania (1992) and her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Columbia University (2001). She is currently an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University, Bloomington. Shapshay’s interests center on 19th century German philosophy, especially Kant and Schopenhauer, as well as contemporary aesthetics and ethics. Recently… read more »
Paul Fry William Lampson Professor of English, Yale University Paul H. Fry is the William Lampson Professor of English and has taught at Yale since 1971. He received his BA from the University of California, Berkeley and his Ph. D. from Harvard. His primary areas of specialization are British romanticism, the history of literary criticism, contemporary literary theory, and literature in relation to the… read more »
James Judd Conductor, Music Director of the Israel Symphony and the Little Orchestra Society James Judd is Music Director of the Israel Symphony and the Little Orchestra Society. Previous directorships include the New Zealand Symphony, the Orchestre National deLille, Adelaide Symphony and the Florida Philharmonic. A regular guest conductor with major orchestras around the globe, he leads an annual tour of Asia with the Asian Youth Orchestra, as an… read more »
Alan Richardson Professor of English, Boston College Alan Richardson is Professor of English at Boston College. He holds degrees in English from Princeton University and Harvard University. A Romanticist by training, he has published extensively on the literature and culture of the British Romantic era, especially in relation to issues of gender, childhood and education, race and colonialism, and scientific psychology. Over… read more »
Sandra Shapshay Associate Professor of Philosophy, Indiana University Sandra Shapshay earned her B.A. in Intellectual History from the University of Pennsylvania (1992) and her Ph.D. in Philosophy from Columbia University (2001). She is currently an Associate Professor of Philosophy at Indiana University, Bloomington. Shapshay’s interests center on 19th century German philosophy, especially Kant and Schopenhauer, as well as contemporary aesthetics and ethics. Recently… read more »