Lionel Trilling Seminars records, 1932-2001, bulk Bulk Dates: 1976-1998

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Series I: Lecture Transcripts, 1976-1999

This series consists of the texts of lectures delivered by various scholars as part of the Lionel Trilling Seminars. The speakers have included major scholars such as historians Jacques Barzun, Edmund S. Morgan, and C. Vann Woodward; literary critics Frank Kermode and Richard Ellman; and philosophers Arthur C. Danto and Sir Isaiah Berlin. In some cases only the title page of a lecture is in a listed folder with a note that the manuscript was to be delivered at a later date. The manuscripts are arranged chronologically and, where noted, discussants for particular lectures are listed. This series consists of the initial accession of lecture manuscripts which is why there will be some duplication of lecture manuscripts in Series II: Administrative Files.



Box 1 Folder 1 Barzun, Jacques (Columbia University) "The Life and Death of Modernism," 1976 November 9, 1976

(Title Page only, no manuscript. Discussants: J. Hillis Miller, Yale University and Robert Rosenblum, New York University)


Box 1 Folder 2 Geertz, Clifford (Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton) "The Social History of the Moral Imagination: Examples and Reflections," 1977 February17, 1977

(Discussants: Victor L. Turner, University of Chicago and Victor H. Brombert, Princeton University)


Box 1 Folder 3 Berlin, Isaiah "Nationalism, Its Rise and Unforseen Career," 1977 April 7, 1977

(Discussants: Gertrude Himmelfarb, City University of New York and Michael Walzer, Harvard University)


Box 1 Folder 4 Stone, Lawrence (Princeton University) "Individualism: A Revolution in Family Relationships in Eighteenth-Century England," 1977 November 17, 1977

(Discussants: Christopher Ricks, Cambridge University and Mary Douglas, University College, London)


Box 1 Folder 5 Abrams, M.H. (Cornell University) "How to do Things With Texts," 1978 February23, 1978

(Discussants: A. Walton Litz, Princeton University and Edward W. Said, Columbia University)


Box 1 Folder 6 Arrow, Kenneth (Harvard University) "Socialism Reconsidered," 1978 April 13, 1978

(Discussants: Christopher Lasch, University of Rochester and W.G. Runciman, Cambridge University)


Box 1 Folder 7 Dahrendorf, Ralf (London School of Economics and Political Science) "Life Chances: On the Dimensions of Liberty in Society," 1978 December 7, 1978

(Discussants: William Barrett, New York University and Norman Birnbaum, Amherst College)


Box 1 Folder 8 Reiff, Phillip (University of Pennsylvania) "Revelation and Repression: The Return of the Sacred in Freud's Theory," 1979 February1, 1979

(Title page only, no manuscript. Discussants: James Cameron, University of Toronto and Christopher Lasch, University of Rochester)


Box 1 Folder 9 Ellmann, Richard (New College, Oxford) "Decadence and the 'Nineties'," 1979 April 3, 1979

(Discussants: Peter Conrad, Christ Church, Oxford and Stephen Donadio, Middlebury College)


Box 1 Folder 10 Gombrich, E.H. (Warburgh Institute) "Style Skill and Function in Image-making," 1979 October 11, 1979

(No Manuscript. Discussants: David Rosand, Columbia University and Henri Zerner, Harvard University)


Box 1 Folder 11 Marcus, Steven (Columbia University) "Psychoanalytic Theory and Cultural Change," 1980 February14, 1980

(Discussants: Peter Lowenberg, University of California, Los Angeles and Richard Wollheim, University of London)


Box 1 Folder 12 Woodward, C. Vann (Yale University) "American Growing Pains and European Apprehensions," 1980 April 17, 1980

(Discussants: Davird Rothman, Columbia University and Cushing Strout, Cornell University)


Box 1 Folder 13 Ricoeur, Paul (University of Chicago) "The Eclipse of Events in Modern Historiography," 1980 November 13, 1980

(Discussants: Stanley Cavell, Harvard University and Clifford Geertz Institute for Advance Study, Princeton)


Box 1 Folder 14 Kermode, Frank (King's College, Cambridge) "Keeping the Road Open: Reflections on a Theme of Lionel Trilling," 1981 February14, 1981

(Discussants: M.H. Abrams, Cornell University and Paul DeMan, Yale University)


Box 1 Folder 15 Shklar, Juditch "Putting Cruelty First," 1981 April 1, 1981

(Manuscript. Discussants: Unknown.)


Box 1 Folder 16 Steinberg, Leo (University of Pennsylvania) "The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion," 1981 November 19, 1981

(Discussants: Julius Held, Barnard College and John W. O'Malley, Weston School of Theology)


Box 1 Folder 17 Ricks, Christopher (Cambridge University) "Prejudice and T.S. Eliot," 1982 February15, 1982

(Discussants: William Arrowsmith, Emory University and Hugh Kenner, Johns Hopkins University)


Box 1 Folder 18 Morgan, Edmund S. (Yale University) "The People's Choice: The Electoral Carnival in Eighteenth-Century England and America," 1982 April 6, 1982

(Discussants: Walter D. Burnham, Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Nathan Glazer, Harvard University)



Box 2 Folder 1 Chomsky, Noam (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) "Linguistics: Recent History and Prospects," 1982 November 4, 1982

(Discussants: Dell Hymes, University of Pennsylvania and Jerrold Katz, City University of New York)


Box 2 Folder 2 Berger, Peter (Boston University) "The World as a Religious Idea," 1983 February2, 1983

(Discussants: David S. Landes, Harvard University and Edward Said, Columbia University)


Box 2 Folder 3 Quinton, Anthony (Oxford University) "Character and Will in Modern Ethics," 1983 April 5, 1983

(Title page only. No manuscript. Discussants: Jerome B. Schneewind, Johns Hopkins University and Robert Paul Wolff, University of Massachusetts)


Box 2 Folder 4 Donoghue, Denis (New York University) "The Intelligentsia at the Present Time," 1983 November 3, 1983

(Discussants: Peter Brooks, Yale University and Nathan Glazer, Harvard University)


Box 2 Folder 5 Darnton, Robert (Princeton University) "Rousseau and His Reader: A Problem in History," 1984 February7, 1984

(Title page only. No manuscript. Discussants: Stanly Fish, Johns Hopkins University and Patricia Spacks, Yale University)


Box 2 Folder 6 Dworkin, Ronald (Oxford and New York Universities) "How to Think About Human Rights," 1984 April 2, 1984

(Discussants: Brice Ackerman, Columbia University and Arthur Danto Columbia University)


Box 2 Folder 7 Hoffmann, Stanley (Harvard University) "Liberalism and International Affairs," 1984 November 8, 1984

(Discussants: Michael Scammel, New York Institute for Humanities and Michel Walzer, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton)


Box 2 Folder 8 Bayley, John (Oxford University) "Character in Modern Criticism," 1985 February15, 1985

(Discussants: Jerome Bruner, New School for Social research and John Hollander, Yale University)


Box 2 Folder 9 Nozick, Robert (Harvard University) "The Emotion of Happiness," 1985 April 2, 1985

(Discussants: John Searle, University of California, Berkeley and Derek Walcott, Boston University)


Box 2 Folder 10 Trilling, Diana "Biography of a Marriage," 1985 November 7, 1985

(Title Page only. No manuscript.)


Box 2 Folder 11 Pocock, J.G.A. (Johns Hopkins University) "The Post-Whig Interpretations of History," 1986 February6, 1986

(Title page only. No manuscript. Discussants: Donlad R. Kelly, University of Rochester and Lawrence Stone, Princeton University)


Box 2 Folder 12 Vlastos, Gregory (University of California at Berkeley) "Socratic Irony," 1986 April 10, 1986

(Discussants: William Gass, Washington University and Charles Kahn, University of Pennsylvania)


Box 2 Folder 13 Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim (Columbia University) "About Freud's Moses and Monotheism," 1986 November 24, 1986

(Discussants: Robert Alter, University of California at Berkeley and William McGrath, University of Rochester)


Box 2 Folder 14 Brown, Peter (Princeton University) "The Philosopher and the Monk: Two Late Antique Options," 1987 February11, 1987

(Discussants: Marcia Colish, Oberlin College and Jaroslav Pelikan, Yale University)


Box 2 Folder 15 Bell, Pearl "From the Lighthouse: Women and Fiction Today," 1987 April 6, 1987

(Discussants: Mary Gordon, Novelist and John Gross, Literary Critic)


Box 2 Folder 16 Schorske, Carl (Princeton University) "Scholarly Ethos and Civic Culture: The Case of Basel," 1987 October 21, 1987

(Discussants: Thomas Bender, New York University and Walter Sokel, University of Virginia)


Box 2 Folder 17 Searle, John (University of California at Berkeley) "What's Wrong With the Philosophy of Mind?" 1988 February8, 1988

(Discussants: Ned Block, Massachusettes Institute of Technology and Gilberyt Harman, Princeton University)


Box 2 Folder 18 Wilson, Edward O. (Harvard University) "The Relation Between Biology and the Social Sciences," 1988 April 6, 1988

(Outline only. Discussants: Gerald Holton, Harvard University and Joshua Lederberg, Rockefeller University)


Box 2 Folder 19 Danto, Arthur C. (Columbia University) "Narratives of the End of Art," 1988 November 14, 1988

(Discussants: Noel Carroll, Cornell University and Richard Shiff, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill)


Box 2 Folder 20 Pelikan, Jaroslav (Yale University) "Some Patterns in the Development of Christian Doctrine," 1989 February1, 1989

(Discussants: Caroline Bynum, Columbia University and Richard Norris, Union Theological Seminary)


Box 2 Folder 21 Smith, Denis Mack "The Relationship Between Traditional Nationalism and the Development of Fascism in Italy," 1989 April 4, 1989

(Discussants: Edward Malefakis, Columbia University [Note: Substituted for S. Hoffman] and Fritz Stern, Columbia University)


Box 2 Folder 22-23 Hirshman, Albert O. "Two Hundred Years of Reactionary Rhetoric: The Futility of Thesis," 1990 February6, 1990

(2 folders. Discussants: Stanley Hoffman and Stephen Holmes)


Box 2 Folder 24 Constable, Giles "The Ordering of Society in the Middle Ages," 1990 April 3, 1990

(Discussants: John Baldwin and Elizabeth Brown)



Box 3 Folder 1 Rosovsky, Henry "Education: Some Recent Discontents in Perspective," 1990 November 7, 1990

(Discussants: William Theodore deBary and David Bromwich)


Box 3 Folder 2 Bynum, Caroline W. "Am I My Body?" 1991 February20, 1991

(Discussants: Peter Brown and John S. Hawley)


Box 3 Folder 3 Todorov, Tzvetan "Facing Evil," 1991 April 8, 1991

(Discussants: Leon Wieseltier and Yosef H. Yernshalmi)


Box 3 Folder 4 Vendler, Helen, "The Audience for Poetry," 1991 November 7, 1991

(Also on audio cassette. Discussants: Denis Donoghue and Herbert Liebowitz)


Box 3 Folder 5 Diggins, John Patrick "Deconstruction and the American Past," 1992 February6, 1992

(Discussants: Andrew Delbanco and Donlad R. Kelley)


Box 3 Folder 6 Kolakonski, Leszek "What is Left of Marxism and the Socialist Idea?" 1992 April 7, 1992

(Also on audio cassette. Discussants: Bogan Denitch and Louis Henkin)


Box 3 Folder 7 Hollander, John "The City of Thought: Urbanity and Seriousness," 1992 November 12, 1992

(Also on audio cassette. Discussants: Discussants: Christopher Ricks and Edward Rothstein)


Box 3 Folder 8 Sen, Amartya "India and the West," 1993 February18, 1993

(Also on audio cassette. Discussants: Akeel Bilgrami and Clifford Geertz)


Box 3 Folder 9 Bromwich, David "How Moral Is Taste?," 1993 April 8, 1993

(also on audio cassette)


Box 3 Folder 10 Nussbaum, Martha "The History of an Emotion," 1993 November 18, 1993

(also on audio cassette)


Box 3 Folder 11 Bradley, Bill "Race, Violence and the American Dream," 1994 April 4, 1994

(Also on audio cassette. Discussants: Arnold Rampersad and Werner Sollors)


Box 3 Folder 12-13 Bailyn, Barnard "Context in History" 1995 February2, 1995

(2 folders. Also on audio cassette. Professor Bailyn has requested that anyone wishing to quote or cite this paper should obtain his permission. Discussants: Eric Foner and Dorothy Ross)


Box 3 Folder 14 Nagel, Thomas "Relativism and Reason," 1995 March5, 1995

(Two copies of manuscript. Also on audio cassette)


Box 3 Folder 15 Gurr, Andrew "Remaking the past, or its artefacts: Shakespeare's Globe versus the Athenian trireme and Captain Cook's Endeavour," 1995 November 10, 1995

(Also on audio cassette. Discussants: John Orrell and Micahel Warren)


Box 3 Folder 16 Menand, Louis "Intellectual Identity After Trilling," 1995 November 9, 1995

(Also on audio cassette. Discussants: Alan Brinkley and Andreas Huyssen)


Box 3 Folder 17 Moynihan, Daniel Patick "The Middle of the Journey: The Middle of the Night," 1996 February19, 1996

(Also on audio cassette. Discussants: Richard Epstein, University of Chicago Law School and Sir Brian Urquhart, Former Under-Secretary General, The United Nations.)


Box 3 Folder 18 Kennedy, Randall "Racial Pride, Racial Kinship and Other Problems," 1996 April 17, 1996

(Discussants: Manning Marable and George Fletcher)


Box 3 Folder 19 Holmes, Stephen "Can Weak-State Liberalism Survive?," 1997 February13, 1997

(First draft of manuscript; also on audio cassette)


Box 3 Folder 20 Taruskin, Richard "Stravinsky and Us," 1997 November 11, 1997

(Also on audio cassette)


Box 3 Folder 21 Belting, Hans "The Memory of the Masterpiece: Reflections on Myth and Modern Art," 1998 April 1, 1998

(Also on audio cassette)


Box 3 Folder 22 Skinner, Quentin "Ancient Laughter and Modern Philosophy," 1999 March25, 1999

(Also on audio cassette)