Belvedere Lecture by Prof Roland Greene (Stanford U), the 2026 International Francqui Professor at Ghent University.

Greene will trace the decline of universalism: the idea that certain themes, experiences, or values in literature are common to all humans, transcending specific cultural, historical, or geographical contexts. This doctrine ruled the study of literature until about 75 years ago.

Its disappearance made possible new canons of experimental, ethnic, and Indigenous writing, but left literary studies with a crisis of authority—and a diminished place in public culture—that remains the topic of countless jeremiads.

After sketching a provocative history of this transformative episode in the life of a discipline, Prof. Greene will offer ideas toward the rebuilding of literary criticism’s authority on a sounder basis than what it was established on—in effect, remaking its foundation with a new sense of ethics and justice.

Prof Greene is the Mark Pigott KBE Professor, Anthony P. Meier Family Professor of the Humanities and a Professor of English and Comparative Literature at Stanford University.

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