Since its initial publication in 1759, Voltaire’s Candide has been criticized, imitated, excerpted into shorter set-pieces, inspired renunciations and sequels, illustrated more than a hundred times by artists both anonymous and famous, sung as musical theater and comic opera, and canonized as a national treasure and an outstanding contribution to world literature.

In this talk, Alice Boone, from the Department of English and Comparative Literature at Columbia University, will explore how book history, with its interest in iterations of publication and what has been called the sociology of texts, can expose the unintended, sometimes unpredictable effects of canonization—namely, that what some would call the novel’s timelessness also turns it into a catalyst for its adaptation and change.

6pm, December 2, 2009
Butler Library, room 523