Figures of Friendship in Emerson & Thoreau  

   8:30 am - 5 pm, Friday, May 19, 2006

   8:30 am - 4 pm, Saturday, May 20, 2006

   All sessions will be held at the Knight Law Center, Room 142

For those curious, the pertinent texts for the E/T conference will be:
Emerson's "Friendship" from Essays: First Series (1841)
For Thoreau reading, the main work is his essay on Friendship in the "Wednesday" chapter of A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers, which comprises roughly the second half of this 60 page chapter.

Friday, May 19

 

8:30: Coffee outside rm. 142

 

8:45: Welcome by Joe Stone, Dean, CAS

 

9-10:45: “Transcendental Friendship: A Contradiction in Terms?” Lawrence Buell. Reply: Maurice Lee

 

10:45-11:00 Break

 

11:00-12:45: “Performing Transcendental Friendship in A Week: Narrative, Loss, and Elegy,” William Rossi. Reply: Henry Wonham

 

1:00-2:00 Lunch

 

2:15-4:00: “ ’In the Golden Hour of Friendship:’ Transcendentalism and Utopian Desire,” David Robinson. Reply: James Albrecht.

 

4:00-4:15: Break

 

4:15-6:00 “Emerson and Skepticism: A Reading of ‘Friendship’,” Russell Goodman. Reply: Tom Davis

 

 

Saturday, May 20

 

8:45: Coffee

 

9:00-10:45: “Forgiving the Giver: Emerson, Carlyle, Thoreau,” Barbara Packer. Reply: James Crosswhite

 

10:45-11:00: Break

 

11:00-12:45: “Leaving and Bequeathing: Friendship, Moral Perfectionism, and the Gleam of Light,” Naoko Saito. Reply: Branka Arsic

 

1:00-2:00: Lunch

 

2:15-4:00: “Commended Strangers, Beautiful Enemies,” John Lysaker. Reply: Scott Pratt

This conference is only possible given the generosity of the Philosophy Department, the English Department, the Program in Comparative Literature, the Dean's Office of the College of Arts and Sciences, the Oregon Humanities Center, the Graduate School, and the Office of International Programs.