Lecture 6 - Paul Robeson: Art in the Service of Heroism
The sixth lecture in Professor Susan Neiman's Gifford Lectures
Event details
Date: Thursday 12 May 2022, 5:30pm to 6:30pm
Venue: Lecture Theatre A, 40 George Square
Lecture abstract
Hopefully Robeson is better known in Scotland than in his native USA, where McCarthyist persecution succeeded in destroying not only the artist’s life but in a large measure his reputation, though W.E.B. Dubois once called him the most famous American in the world. This son of an escaped slave honed his extraordinary talents to become a model of the artist as hero. In answering some objections about his political commitments I will also discuss the question: how flawed can a hero be?