Department of Classical Studies

September 28, 2023 Classical Studies Speaker Series

Nancy Worman, Barnard College and Columbia University

"Tempo and Form in Sappho, Swinburne, and Thom Gunn"

In this discussion I argue that Sappho and some key modern poets situate erotic movement at the conjunction of the mobile body and poetic form. I aim to move beyond the typical (and typically gendered) scholarly discourse around Sappho that tends to resort to body-mind binaries and explore the theoretical consequences of focusing on tempo, style, and form. The discussion turns from Swinburne to Sappho to Thom Gunn, as viewed from the queer aesthetics of Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick at one end and the aesthetic anxieties of Plato at the other. One through line is the association of eroticized female bodies with lyric tempo and form, especially those of Helen and Anactoria, the love object in Sappho 16. All of these writers concern themselves in one way or another with bodily rhythms and control – of form, of erotics, and ultimately of the gendered temporalities of the body.

4:30 PM

Location: Lindley Hall 130

Contact Alyson Melzer (almelzer@iu.edu) for more info!