Harvard Professor Presents ‘Literature from the Tablet to the iPad’ at UA

TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Dr. Martin Puchner, a professor at Harvard University and an expert on world literature, drama, modernism and philosophy, will present “Literature from the Tablet to the iPad” Wednesday, April 8 at 4:30 p.m. in room 125 of ten Hoor Hall on The University of Alabama campus.

The lecture is free and open to the public.

In the lecture, Puchner will discuss the history of literature as a combination of both storytelling and writing technologies. The lecture is sponsored by W. W. Norton & Company Inc., and by UA’s program in comparative and world literature, which is housed in the department of English.

Puchner, the Byron and Anita Wien Professor of Drama and English and Comparative Literature at Harvard, is the general editor of the 2012 Norton Anthology of World Literature, the 2013 Norton Anthology of Western Literature, and the 2009 Norton Anthology of Drama.

Due to his expertise, he advises departments across the globe on how to teach world literature and how to promote the teaching of world literature as an essential part of a 20th-century liberal arts education.

He is the author of “The Drama of Ideas: Platonic Provocations in Theater and Philosophy,” “Poetry of the Revolution: Marx, Manifestos, and the Avant-Gardes,” “Stage Fright” and other works. He also edits the journal Theatre Survey.

In addition to his scholarly work, Puchner writes essays on contemporary literature, philosophy and politics for such venues as The London Review of Books, Bookforum, Raritan Review, N+1, Inside Higher Ed and Public Books.

He studied philosophy, history and literature at the University of Konstanz, the Università di Bologna, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and the University of California at Irvine. He earned a doctorate from Harvard University in 1998.

He taught English and comparative literature at Columbia University from 1998 until 2010 before joining the faculty at Harvard University in 2010.

The department of English is part of UA’s College of Arts and Sciences, the University’s largest division and the largest liberal arts college in the state. Students from the College have won numerous national awards including Rhodes Scholarships and Goldwater Scholarships.