JAF Fellowship Breakfast
Preservation and Creativity
Professor Leah Whittington
We often think of preserving and creating as opposites. Preservation means maintaining the old, while creating means producing something new. What if these activities are much more closely related? In this talk, I will consider examples from literature and the visual arts where engaging with, caring for, and considering one’s obligations to past works of art is the spur for new artistic creation. We will talk about how art objects and texts acquire new meanings and interpretations over time, and when making changes to existing artworks is a form of creativity and research. My examples will come from the literature and culture of the Renaissance and today.
Leah Whittington is Professor of English and Affiliate Faculty in Classics. She teaches a GenEd course called “Texts in Transition” with Professor Ann Blair in History, and courses in English literature, including “Epic from Homer to Star Wars” and “Global Shakespeare”. She’s just finished a book about completions and continuations of ancient literature in the Renaissance.
