The Great (Male) ‘Writer at Work’: Gender Analysis, the Paris Review and teaching Interviews, Sarah Fay
Interview: Form, Method, Inscription Technology, Rebecca Roach
Critical Interviews, Theory & Pedagogy, H. Aram Veeser
The Critical Interview, Jeffrey Williams
The Great (Male) ‘Writer at Work’: Gender Analysis, the Paris Review and teaching with Interviews,Sarah Fay
Abstract
I will speak about my pathbreaking study of the gender biases of the Paris Review which uses computer-assisted data collection, digital graphing, and topic modeling to argue that those interviews have contributed to a masculine image of “the great writer.” I will reflect on the pedagogical implications of my findings.
Bio
Sarah Fay is a scholar and practitioner of the literary interview. Her dissertation, “The American Tradition of the Literary Interview, 1840-1956: A Cultural History” examined their history and she conducted interviews as an advisory editor at Paris Review. She currently teaches at DePaul University and Northwestern University.
Interview: Form, Method, Inscription Technology,Rebecca Roach
Abstract
Drawing on my book, I argue for the interview as both a method and form of life writing—with the latter often side-lined in pedagogy and theory. I further characterise the interviewer as an inscription technology, thus contributing to contemporary debate around the import of digital technologies for life writing.
Bio
Rebecca Roach authored Literature and the Rise of the Interview (Oxford UP, 2018) and co-edited “Interviewing as Creative Practice,” a special issue of Biography 41.2 (2018). Her work has appeared in Contemporary Literature, MFS, Textual Practice, and elsewhere. She is Lecturer in Contemporary Literature at the University of Birmingham.
Critical Interviews, Theory & Pedagogy, H. Aram Veeser
Abstract
Drawing on my new book, The Rebirth of American Literary Theory and Criticism: Scholars Discuss Intellectual Origins and Turning Points, which presents 18 original interviews with theorists, I will discuss my methods and findings and their implications for life writing pedagogy today.
Bio
H. Aram Veeser is a practitioner of the critical interview, author of the forthcoming interview collection The Rebirth of American Literary Theory and Criticism: Scholars Discuss Intellectual Origins and Turning Points (Anthem, 2021), and Professor of English at the City College of New York and the CUNY Graduate Center.
The Critical Interview, Jeffrey Williams
Abstract
The literary interview is a familiar form. However, the critical interview is less well known. I will give a brief history of it, particularly how it takes a translational role. I will also talk about the process, drawing on my experience conducting more than 70 such interviews.
Bio
Jeffrey J. Williams has published more than 75 interviews with critics and writers, commenting on the practice in and “Criticism Live: The History and Practice of the Critical Interview,” Biography 41.2 (2018). He is Professor of English and of Literary and Cultural Studies at Carnegie Mellon University.