Mark Edmundson is Professor of English at the University of Virginia. His areas of specialty are 19th century American, 19th century British, Poetry, and Romanticism.
In Why Read? published by Bloomsbury in 2005, Edmundson reconceives the value and promise of reading. He enjoins educators to stop offering up literature as facile entertainment and instead teach students to read in a way that can change their lives for the better. At once controversial and inspiring, this is a groundbreaking book written with the elegance and power to change the way we teach and read.
In The Death of Sigmund Freud: Fascism, Psychoanalysis and the Rise of Fundamentalism, published by Bloomsbury in 2008, Edmundson traces Hitler and Freud's oddly converging lives, then zeroes in on the last two years of Freud's life, during which he was rescued and brought to London.
Edmundson’s publications include the memoir The Fine Wisdom and Perfect Teachings of the Kings of Rock and Roll, published by HarperCollins in 2010. His work has appeared many journals, including Harper’s Magazine and Chronicle of Higher Education, and his 2011 essay "Who Are You and What Are You Doing Here? / A Message in a Bottle for the Incoming Class" was chosen for inclusion in Best American Essays 2012.
Among other awards, Edmundson has been a Guggenheim Fellow and an NEH Distinguished Teaching Professor.
Free and open to the public. Co-sponsored with the Department of English.
This talk is part of the Public Humanities lecture series of the Humanities Institute.
