Professor of Literature John Farrell will discuss “Paranoia in the Modern World,” a lecture inspired by the research of his new book Paranoia and Modernity: Cervantes to Rousseau (Cornell University Press, 2005). He will speak at the Marian Miner Cook Athenaeum at 6:45 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 17. The lecture is free and open to the public, with seating on a first-come basis.
His book, Paranoia and Modernity, traces this evolution through the writings of many of western civilization's greatest thinkers, such as Luther, Hobbes, and Rousseau, in order to understand the role of paranoia in the growth of western intellectual culture from the theological debates of the late Middle Ages to the humanistic debates of today. Through a fusion of literary interpretation and historical research, Farrell views the development of paranoia through modern times as central to fundamental questions of individual control and personal freedom that have occupied philosophical thinkers for hundreds of years.
In addition to Paranoia and Modernity, Farrell is the author of several other works relating to paranoia, suspicion, and their roles in psychoanalytic and literary thought, including his book Freud's Paranoid Quest: Psychoanalysis and Modern Suspicion, as well as numerous scholarly articles and reviews, such as Can Freud Be Allowed to Die, published in 1994.
Farrell, whose teaching and research interests include Renaissance and modern poetry, criticism and critical theory, 19th- and 20th Century English and American literature, literature and science, and psychoanalysis, graduated with honors from Brown University and earned both his master's and doctorate degrees in English and American literature from Harvard University.
Before joining CMC in 1990, he taught at Harvard and was a contributing editor to The Harvard Review. In 2002-2003 he was the recipient of an NEH Fellowship, awarded for advanced research in the humanities.
For more information about this event: 909-621-8245.