Book Launch with Professor Ullrich Langer

A conversation with Professor Ullrich Langer (Interim Director of the IRH, 2017-2018; Senior Fellow, 2000-2005) who will present his new book, Lyric Humanity from Virgil to Flaubert (Cambridge University Press, March 2023). 4:45pm– Gathering Refreshments 5:00-6:00pm– Presentation and Conversation From the Georgics of Virgil to Flaubert’s landscapes of happiness, Ullrich Langer argues that lyric representation holds a particular power to address our humanity. Ranging across a vast chronology, the book investigates how such poetry and prose activates our capacities for empathy, equity, irony and reasoning, while educating us in pleasure and helping us comprehend death. Each chapter constitutes a fresh encounter with some of the most celebrated texts of European literary history, demonstrating how the lyrical works, and what it elicits in us. Through deft rhetorical and philological analysis, the study presents the value of literary studies for both ethical purposes and aesthetic ends. For more information about Lyric Humanity from Virgil to Flaubert click here. Event sponsored by the Center for Early Modern Studies. Contact Kristin Phillips-Court for details (kristin.phillips-court@wisc.edu).