BOB DYLAN AND GREEK CULTURE CONFERENCE
at
University of Missouri St. Louis
Center for International Studies
SPONSORED BY:
THE HELLENIC GOVERNMENT-KARAKAS FAMILY FOUNDATION
PROFESSORSHIP IN GREEK STUDIES
UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI-ST. LOUIS
ORGANIZED BY Prof. Michael Cosmopoulos,
with the assistance of Terry Marshall, Richard Thomas and Tom Palaima
For those of you who are Bob Dylan fans and are in the major St. Louis area, please consider joining us for the following conference:
“Bob Dylan at 70: Immigrants, Wanderers, Exiles, and Hard Travelers in the poetry, music, and culture of Ancient Greece and Modern America”
Saturday, March 19, 10 am-5 pm, Century Room A, MSC.
Free and Open to the Public. Lunch provided.
For the full program please visit www.umsl.edu/~cosmopoulosm/Dylanprogram.pdf
There is a newsroom item on it at:
http://blogs.umsl.edu/news/2011/03/15/conference-explores-bob-dylan-immigrant-influence-on-art/
Bob Dylan at 70
10:00-10:15
Michael Cosmopoulos, UM-St. Louis
Welcoming Remarks
10:15-11:00
Barry Powell, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Freewheelin With Bob Dylan
11:00-11:45
Richard Thomas, Harvard University
Must be the Jack of Hearts in the Great North Woods
11:45-12:00
Discussion
LUNCH
12:00-13:30
AFTERNOON
13:30-14:15 PM
John Foley, University of Missouri (Columbia)
In Search of Penelope: Dylan as Wanderer
14:15-15:00 PM
Thomas G. Palaima, University of Texas-Austin
Songs of the ‘Hard Traveler’ from Odysseus to the Never-Ending Tourist
COFFEE BREAK
15:00-15:30
15:30-16:15 PM
Stephen Scobie, University of Victoria
‘And Forget My Name’ – A Reading And Commentary
16:15-17:30
Videos of Bob Dylan performing — Discussion
MY PAPER:
Songs of the ‘Hard Traveler’ from Odysseus to the Never-Ending Tourist
THOMAS G. PALAIMA
The traveler is a familiar figure in ancient Greek song and in the 20th-century American popular and folk song tradition. For emigrant and immigrant nations like Greece and the United States, songs about hard lives away from home and home communities are fundamental as ways of learning modes of behavior and expressing shared feelings about common experiences. These songs may express the thrill of adventure, the loneliness and sorrow of an unsettled and essentially friendless life,, the dangers of travel, longing for security, and the joy of finally reaching a permanent destination and setting down roots again. All of these, of course, are found in Homer’s “Odyssey,” the supreme distillation of ancient Greek, traveling-man songs. We will here examine Dylan’s own songs and his performance repertory in order to trace these same themes.
Added Palaima editorials:
“Closing doors to the future”
“Budget woes and our misguided priorities”
“No more excuses for UT’s excesses”
“Key to the present lies in the past”
“Let’s make this our 9-28”
“U.S. gun laws allow normal day at UT to take a scary turn”
“Game over: Helping teens deal with violence”
“Redirect UT’s resources”
“Obama’s rah-rah speech ignored sobering reality”
“Wake-up call on homelessness”
Added Palaima reviews:
A New History of the Peloponnesian War