One Love, Literary: A Conversation with Dr. Manish Sharma on Chaucer and the Paradox of Love

For years, the humanities have been said to exist in a state of crisis. As the enrolments to literary studies keep falling and the budgets keep shrinking, one is forced to ask – is literature still relevant? What is the role of literature in the age of existential climate anxiety, pandemic and war? When the black waves of despair wash through human communities and aspirations are required to be applied “to the real world,” I suggest we stir the conversation to the value of that which has survived through many other existential threats, pandemics and wars. For this podcast event, I will talk to one speaker about one author – and their journey together. We will explore the concept of literature as an artistic, imaginative, and professional endeavour, one that is unlike any other.

I am Olga Tsygankova, a (Ukrainian) MA student in English, and I invite you to join me in conversation with Dr. Manish Sharma - Associate Professor, Old English and Medieval literature scholar in Concordia's English department. We discuss his relationship with literature and Chaucer and his forthcoming book, The Logic of Love in the Canterbury Tales (University of Toronto Press, 2022). Dr. Sharma’s research situates Chaucer's magnum opus at the intersection of medieval Christology, insolubilia-literature, and the 14th-century philosophical antinomy of realism and nominalism. The book provides a reading of the Canterbury Tales that “seeks to demonstrate an unexpected but rigorous logical consistency that entangles the "undecidability" of insolubilia and the radically "non-judgmental" posture of love.

How can you participate?

Attend in person (note, there is a maximum of 25 audience members permitted in the space) or online by registering for the Zoom meeting or watching live on 4th Space's YouTube channel.

Have questions? Send them to info.4@concordia.ca