Please join Lit and Mind for the first 2021 meeting of our Story and the Brain undergraduate discussion group! Undergraduates are especially welcome. This meeting will be led by English undergraduate Rachel Gaines and will focus on the question of intentions in literature and beyond. We will discuss questions about how a writer's intentions do or should matter for how we interpret literature and other texts. Does it, for example, matter what a writer meant, or are we free to interpret as we'd like? How can environment and culture shape meaning and take it quite far from what the author had in mind? Who decides what a text means?
To discuss these questions, we will read part of world famous example of a text that was never intended to be read but has found a global audience: Anne Frank's The Diary of a Young Girl. We'll read the following selections:
Foreword, June 12, 1942 - July 12, 1942 (pg. 1-24)
October 14, 1942 (pg. 42-43)
May 11, 1944 (pg. 217-218)
You'll find a pdf of the whole book here (but please note that you only have to read the above selections). For anyone who wants to learn more about the topic of intentionality as it relates to literature as well as modern U.S. legal history, please see the chapter "Intention" by Annabel Patterson in Critical Terms for Literary Study, edited Frank Lentricchia and Thomas McLaughlin. Note that this is not required reading.
Please find the Zoom link for this event at the end of this email and feel free to spread the word and invite undergraduates who might be interested. No prior knowledge or familiarity is needed to attend!
Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any questions. We hope to see you at some of the exciting events lined up in the next couple of weeks!
All the best,
Professor Julie Carlson, Director of Lit and Mind
Aili Pettersson Peeker and Maddie Roepe, Lit and Mind RAs for 2020-2021
Zoom invitation to the Story and the Brian Undergraduate Discussion Group:
Aili Pettersson Peeker is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Story and the Brain Undergraduate Discussion Group Feb 1
Time: Feb 1, 2021 05:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://ucsb.zoom.us/j/83551199989?pwd=cVBxb3VtSThUOG5xWUNwREJudkZIdz09
Meeting ID: 835 5119 9989
Passcode: 245444
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Meeting ID: 835 5119 9989
Find your local number: https://ucsb.zoom.us/u/kbLfrGEVUb
Organizers: Sowon Park and Aili Pettersson Peeker.
Please contact apetterssonpeeker@ucsb.edu for more information.