Derek Attridge 'The Experience of Poetry' Book Launch Panel Discussion

This event celebrates the publication of Professor Derek Attridge's
work The Experience of Poetry with a book launch panel discussion.
The Experience of Poetry asks, was the experience of poetry—or a
cultural practice we now call poetry—continuously available across
the two-and-a-half millennia from the composition of the Homeric
epics to the publication of Ben Jonson's Works and the death of
Shakespeare in 1616? How did the pleasure afforded by the crafting
of language into memorable and moving rhythmic forms play a part in
the lives of hearers and readers in Ancient Greece and Rome, Europe
during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and Britain during the
Renaissance? This event is part of the 'Writers Make Worlds'
series, Professor Attridge will offer a response to the panellists.
About the book: In tackling these questions, this book first
examines the evidence for the performance of the Iliad and the
Odyssey and of Ancient Greek lyric poetry, the impact of the
invention of writing on Alexandrian verse, the performances of
poetry that characterized Ancient Rome, and the private and public
venues for poetic experience in Late Antiquity. It moves on to deal
with medieval verse, exploring the oral traditions that spread
across Europe in the vernacular languages, the place of manuscript
transmission, the shift from roll to codex and from papyrus to
parchment, and the changing audiences for poetry. A final part
investigates the experience of poetry in the English Renaissance,
from the manuscript verse of Henry VIII's court to the anthologies
and collections of the late Elizabethan era. Among the topics
considered in this part are the importance of the printed page, the
continuing significance of manuscript circulation, the performance
of poetry in pageants and progresses, and the appearance of poets
on the Elizabethan stage. In tracking both continuity and change
across these many centuries, the book throws fresh light on the
role and importance of poetry in western culture.