Lecture by Vincent Barletta (Associate Professor, Stanford University): Looking at classical and Renaissance poetry, it's possible to develop a theory of rhythm that corresponds neatly with Platonic ideas of time, number, and movement.

More than one early modern editor, in fact, presents the Italianate verses of Iberian poets Garcilaso de la Vega and Luís Vaz de Camões (closely related to the imperial politics of his time) in precisely these terms. There is, they say, "numeric harmony" in the work of these poets. In the present paper, I argue that this view of rhythm ignores a broad current of poetic theory and practice, with roots in Presocratic thought, that links rhythm to philosophical questions of being.

Using examples from numerous languages and traditions (including the Greek, Hebrew, Spanish, and Portuguese ones), my goal is to present a more complete view of rhythm in the early modern period -- one that connects it to deeper concerns regarding agency, otherness, subjectivity, and what Léopold Sédar Senghor has referred to as the "architecture of being."

Please email Juan Udaondo Alegre at jpu105@psu.edu for Zoom details.