Lecture
Professor David Peimer
Saturday 27.09.2025
Professor David Peimer
The Great Poetry of the 19th Century, Part 2
Saturday 27.09.2025
Summary
It was a century of inspiring poetry: Romanticism, a reaction to the Enlightenment rationalist dream, poetry of Empire, and America forging its identity. In this second talk, we appreciate poems by some of the greats (Coleridge, Keats, Byron, Shelley, Wordsworth, Whitman, and Dickinson) and shake them up from our 21st-century perspective of fake news, manipulated facts, dangerous geo politics, and the eternal outsider—the Jewish person—to feel the glowing creativity of their poetry and be amazed at how urgently they continue speak to us today.
Professor David Peimer
David Peimer is a Professor of Literature, Film and Theatre in the UK. He has worked for the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, New York University (Global Division) and was a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University. Born in South Africa, David has won numerous awards for playwriting and directing. He has most recently directed Dame Janet Suzman in his own play, Joanna’s Story, at London Jewish Book Week. He has published numerous books, including Armed Response: Plays from South Africa and the digital book Theatre in the Camps. He is on the board of the Pinter Centre (London), and has been involved with the Mandela Foundation, Vaclav Havel Foundation and directed a range of plays at Mr Havel’s Prague theatre.