January 30 - “How Stories Shape History” with Professor Martin Puchner
7:00 PM - 8:00 PM Thursday, 30 January, 2025 (Timezone: Eastern)
***Harvard Alumni Association Speakers Bureau Special Event***
Martin Puchner, Harvard Professor of English and Comparative Literature, and Byron & Anita Wien Chair in Drama and in English and in Comparative Literature explores the story of literature and how stories shaped world history
Martin Puchner will highlight a remarkable literary journey through time and around the globe to reveal the how stories and literature have created the world we have today. Through foundational texts selected from more than four thousand years of world literature - from Homer to Harry Potter, he will show us how writing has inspired the rise and fall of empires and nations, the spark of philosophical and political ideas, and the birth of religious beliefs. Professor Puchner will also chronicle the inventions - writing technologies, the printing press, the book itself, the internet - that have shaped people, commerce, and history.
Professor Puchner's presentation will be based on his 2018 book, The Written Word, which has been widely reviewed in the New York Times, The Times (London), the Financial Times, The Times Literary Supplement, The Atlantic, and The Economist, among others, covered on radio and television and has been translated into over twenty languages. It appeared on the Wall Street Journal bestseller list and received the Massachusetts Book Award. Updating this content with additional examples and thoughts, Puchner will show us how literature turned our planet into a written world.
Martin Puchner, the Byron and Anita Wien Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Harvard University, is a prize-winning author, educator, public speaker, and institution builder in the arts and humanities. His writings range from philosophy and theater to culture and technology and have been translated into many languages. His bestselling six-volume Norton Anthology of World Literature and HarvardX MOOC (massive open online course) have brought four thousand years of literature to students across the globe. He lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
| Date: | Thursday, January 30, 2025 |
| Time: | 7:00 - 8:00 PM - via Zoom |
| Zoom Link: | Zoom Link will be provided with receipt of registration via email |
| Cost: | Free |
| Tickets: | Register for this event using the button below |
| Who: | Open to HRCW members and alumni |
| Inquiries: | For further info email howard_yeon@post.harvard.edu |