Nordic PhD students can now apply to participate in an exclusive Masterclass with Holberg Laureate 2016, Stephen Greenblatt, in Bergen on June 6th. Transportation and accommodation will be covered, and the participants are also invited to take part in the official Holberg Week Program from June 6th-9th.

Key question:  Why have humans needed to construct accounts of our earliest beginnings — accounts that are inescapably speculative — and what is at stake in different versions. How do the products of the imagination take on the substance of reality, and what work do they do for us?

The discussion will take place in English.

Stephen Greenblatt is presently John Cogan University Professor of the Humanities at Harvard University. Greenblatt will receive the Holberg Prize in June for his distinctive and defining role in the field of literature and his influential voice in the humanities over four decades, predominantly within the fields of literary studies, history and cultural criticism.

Curriculum:

• Genesis, The Bible, Chapters 1-3
• The Epic of Gilgamesh (recommended translation: 2005, by Benjamin R. Foster) 
• On the Genealogy of Morality, Friedrich Nietzsche, 1887
•  The Symbolism of Evil, Paul Ricoeur, 1960 (Part II: Introduction: “The ‘Myths' of the Beginning and of the End”; and Chapter 3 “The ‘Adamic’ Myth and the ‘Eschatological’ Vision of History”)

In addition to have knowledge of the text's listed as curriculum for the masterclass you should be ready to prepare a five to ten minutes presentation about your thoughts on the questions listed up for the  seminar. 

Apply for the Masterclass by sending a letter of motivation + CV to info@holbergprisen.no by April 24th.

Use the same e-mail address if you have any questions.

Please also note in your application where you first heard of the opportunity.