April 25: Philosophy Colloquium to Address ‘Is Poetry Fiction?’

Thursday, April 25, 2019
4:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Armstrong Hall, 231

Mankato, Minn. – Texas Tech University Associate Professor of Philosophy Anna Christina Ribeiro will give a presentation titled “Is Poetry Fiction?” Thursday, April 25 from 4-5:30 p.m. in Armstrong Hall, Room 231 on the Minnesota State University, Mankato campus.

The event is free and open to the public.

Following is an abstract of Ribeiro’s presentation:

“The ancient Greek word poiesis, from which ‘poetry’ derives, means ‘making it up’; this might suggest that in Antiquity poetry was considered fiction. The more recent notion of a ‘poetic persona’ suggests a similar approach. Yet the number of poems where the presumed persona and the author seem to collapse into one is too large to make this generalization credible. Drawing on examples of war poetry, love poetry, and praise poetry, I challenge that model of interpretation that would make poems fictional tout court, arguing that most lyric poems are best regarded as nonfiction.”

Minnesota State Mankato’s Department of Philosophy is the event sponsor.

For more information, contact Joshua Preiss, associate professor of philosophy and co-director of philosophy, politics and economics at Minnesota State Mankato, by phone at 507-389-5518 or by email at joshua.preiss@mnsu.edu.

Minnesota State Mankato’s Department of Philosophy is part of the University’s College of Arts and Humanities.

Minnesota State Mankato, a comprehensive university with 14,227 students, is part of the Minnesota State system, which includes 30 colleges and seven universities.