Working and Reading Groups
Working Groups
CLS Working Groups are offered regularly by the Center. Their focus is broad and interdisciplinary. They examine the figures, forms, genres, theories, histories, and/or methodologies that would be of interest to participants from several different fields in literary studies.
Additional Working Groups may be added according to participant interest. Groups will meet in Dunham College and/or on Zoom.
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Blurb: Each session will be led by a different CLS participant who will share a short reading from a work of literature—whether canonical, current, or obscure—with the group. It could be a single lyric poem, or a couple of pages of prose or drama. The leader will then take five or ten minutes to share some thoughts on what the work is saying and how it says it. But everyone will have the reading in front of them, and so we’ll quickly move into a group discussion. The group’s purpose is to simply gather for the sheer pleasure that can come when we look closely at piece of writing in order to see what’s happening within and between the lines. The only requirements are that you show up, read the passage together, and join the conversation.
Group Organizer: Daniela Garofalo, Email: dg@ou.edu
This group is on hiatus for 2021-2022.
Location: Dunham College, A128 or on Zoom
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Blurb: The Working Group in Poetics meets every month to discuss scholarship and theory in poetry and poetics. Our discussions range from classic treatises by writers like Aristotle and Sir Philip Sidney to the classics of critical theory to the latest research in the field. For the 2021-2022 academic year, the working group will focus on figures and figuration. We’ll start with some foundational text by scholars and philosophers, starting with Erich Auerbach’s classic essay on the history and origins of figural interpretation, and we’ll end with recent work on metaphor and abstraction in poetry.
Group Organizer: Justin Sider, Email: justin.sider@ou.edu
Reading Groups
CLS Reading Groups are affiliated with the Center. Unlike the Working Groups, which are more broadly conceived, the focus of the Reading Groups may be very specific, as narrow as one author or text. These groups may be more disciplinary in focus in their choices of figures, forms, genres, theories, histories, and/or methodologies. The focus of each group depends solely on the participants.
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Blurb: The reading group seeks to serve as a space for participants to learn about and discuss Slavoj Zizek's understanding of how psychoanalysis and philosophy reveal important insights into the socio-political dynamics of today's world as well as literature and film. The reading group is an opportunity to learn more about Zizek, the psychoanalytic theories of Jacques Lacan, as well as the function and form of ideology.
Group Organizer: Laithe Rieger, Email: laithe.k.reiger-1@ou.edu
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Group Organizer: Ellen Greene, Email: egreene@ou.edu
Setting Up a Reading Group
To set up a CLS Reading Group, send a proposal to the Director of CLS, Dr. Daniela Garofalo. Once the group has met for a semester and has gained a good number of regularly attending participants (over 5), the group can apply for financial support for refreshments and/or books. The total amount available for each group per year is $200. If space is available, Reading Groups may meet in Dunham College. Otherwise, several spaces in the library are useful for group meetings.
