Mon Nov 30 · 12pm
Public Research Talk: Plato, the American Genius: The Life of Emerson's Orient
Simon Cox examines Emerson's construction of the Orient, arguing that a Platonic dialectic of East and West was the frame through which he gathered Confucius, Hindu scripture, Persian poetry and European mysticism, and imagined a distinctly American genius. The talk ends in China, where Emerson's individualism figures in debates over Confucian tradition and political authority. Cox, a visiting scholar at the CSWR, wrote The Subtle Body: A Genealogy.