For most social scientists and far too many literature scholars, poetry is difficult to take seriously, when it is taken into account at all. But what if we are missing something? What if failing to take poetry and what poetry does seriously means wedding ourselves to a restricted, fragmented view of culture, society, politics, history, art, architecture, religion, entertainment, and all the elements that when viewed together consitiute the "big picture" of an age, an area, an empire. This talk will feature a unique "big picture" glimpse of the early modern Ottoman Empire as revealed by taking poetry seriously.



Speaker

Walter G. Andrews is a Research Professor in the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the University of Washington. He is the author or co-author of numerous articles and books on Ottoman poetry, including Poetry’s Voice, Society’s Song: Ottoman Lyric Poetry, Ottoman Lyric Poetry: An Anthology, and The Age of Beloveds: Love and the Beloved in Early-Modern Ottoman and European Culture and Society.



“[The Age of Beloveds is] a wonderful and brave book that is so fun to read….An astonishing account of love and the beloved where they intersect with sex, spirituality, politics and power….Amazing!"



This lecture is free and open to the public.