Professor Preece will be speaking on the theme of ‘Writing to Kleist: Literary Letters in Germany at the Time of Napoleon’, starting at 7pm, in the University’s Faraday Lecture Theatre.

Swansea University’s Schools of Arts and Humanities have organised a unique programme of inaugural lectures which will be held on campus throughout this academic year.

The introductory lecture series entitled: ‘New Directions in the Arts and Humanities’ will feature a wide range of subjects and promise to be exciting academic occasions when new research findings are explained and illustrated in an accessible and entertaining manner. 

In recent years Swansea University has invested heavily in the development of the research and teaching activity of its Schools of Arts and Humanities.  As part of this process, it has appointed a number of new professors who are at the cutting-edge of their subject areas, and many of these professors are now giving their first public lectures. 

Professor Preece, Professor in Modern Languages, German, will present ‘Writing to Kleist: Literary Letters in Germany at the Time of Napoleon’.

The lecture focuses on The Literary Revival which began in the mid-eighteenth century and made Germany into the centre of European cultural and intellectual life by the time of Napoleon.

Professor Preece said: “Literature is not just made up of poetry, plays and novels. There are all manner of less appreciated but highly illuminating genres and letters are one of these.

“In my lecture I make the case for reading Kleist's letters as literature that is as stylised exercises in self-presentation rather than as biographical documents reporting on factual events. I shall also reflect on what their publication and preservation history can tell us about the cultural history of the last two hundred years.”

The arts and humanities at Swansea have long been held in very high regard, and these lectures will demonstrate that the university continues to provide an academic home for scholars with distinguished international reputations.

Admission to the lectures is free and all are welcome to attend.  A full list of events is available to download here:
Programme of Inaugural Lectures

For further information relating to the New Directions in the Arts and Humanities programme of Inaugural Lectures, please contact Bev Evans, School of Humanities
Telephone: +44 (0)1792 602361, Email: b.evans@swansea.ac.uk.

For further information on The School of Arts visit http://www.swansea.ac.uk/arts/ and for further information on The School of Humanities visit http://www.swansea.ac.uk/humanities/.