As a doctoral student at the University of Essex, I am examining the fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville in terms of their aesthetic response to the myth of American Exceptionalism, arguing that they challenge the myth by offering an..
As a doctoral student at the University of Essex, I am examining the fiction of Nathaniel Hawthorne and Herman Melville in terms of their aesthetic response to the myth of American Exceptionalism, arguing that they challenge the myth by offering an open-ended, multivalent conception of Beauty, rather than a closed, single perception. In a larger context, I am examing what this aesthetic response means in terms of our contemporary conceptions of Beauty.
As regards this Conference, I am suggesting that the Humanites will remain relevant as long as they continue to ask difficult questions that require the development of discreet judgments about "value" and "beauty." Within this conception, the Humanities remain relevant because they provide a model for making critical judgments about all types of human endeavors - political, economic, and social.
As a scholar, professor, and publishing poet, I am particularly interested in how creative judgments (those made by the artist as they are in the process of making art) are similar to or inform critical judgments. Can we talk about Beauty in any kind of objective way? I believe so and further would argue that such a conversation is crucial to keeping the Humanities vital.
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New Directions in the Humanities
