Summer of Learning: Percy Shelley's Politics and Poetry for Our Times

This lecture will focus on the life and legacy of the British Romantic poet, Percy Shelley (the husband of Frankenstein creator, Mary Shelley), the British author who drowned off the coast of Italy 200 years ago this year. Professor Miranda (University of San Francisco) will shed light on what a poet from so long ago can tell us today about women’s liberation movements, social justice and racial equity, the means and ends of mass protest and revolt, the dynamics of gender and sexual fluidity, the ills of climate change, the urgency of environmental “rewilding,” and the social rewards of vegetarianism and veganism. Through some readings of Shelley's poetry, Professor Miranda will also discuss how and why were civil rights leaders such Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. as well as philosophers such as Karl Marx inspired by the Shelleyan imagination, including how Shelley and other young authors of his time launched the legacy of the neglected genius artist that we recognize through musicians such as Bob Marley, Amy Winehouse, Jimi Hendrix, Selena, and Tupac Shakur.

Join us as Professor Miranda explains the influence and power of imagination for our politics.