About the Annual Hoffman Lecture
James Hoffman, a Comparative Literature major who graduated with High Distinction in 1982, died in a car crash the summer after his graduation...the result of a drunk driver. His thesis, "The Political Connection in Literature: A Study of Four Socialist Novels" reflects James' social awareness and interest in socialism. He was a very caring individual and at the time of his death was working with alcoholics as a volunteer. James' family and colleagues in Comparative Literature established this memorial lecture to host scholars who reflect James' vision of literature as a means of social change.

This year's lecturer is Emily Wilson, University of Pennsylvania
Translating the Odyssey Again: How and Why
Why translate the Odyssey into English yet again, when there have already been almost seventy translations into our language?  Prof. Wilson will discuss her working process and goals with this project, from questions of verse form and meter, pacing, style, word choice to narrative perspective, focalization and point of view.  She will discuss her vision of this complex, magical, moving and absorbing text about identity, hospitality and the meanings of home.

Emily Wilson is a Professor of Classical Studies and Chair of the Program in Comparative Literature and Literary Theory at the University of Pennsylvania.  She grew up in Oxford, UK, and has a BA in Classics (Lit. Hum) from Balliol College Oxford and an M. Phil. in English literature from Corpus Christi College Oxford, and a Ph.D. in Classics and Comparative Literature from Yale.  Her books include a study of tragedy and “overliving”, a book on the death of Socrates and its various cultural receptions, and a literary biography of Seneca.  Her verse translations include Six Tragedies of Seneca, four tragedies of Euripides, and a forthcoming translation of Sophocles’ Oedipus Tyrannos, as well as The Odyssey; she is working on a new translation of the Iliad.

Sponsored by the Comparative Literature Program, Classics Department, The Leslie Center for the Humanities and The Humanities Sequence.

Free and open to the public!

*Date, time and location subject to change*