Alan Shapiro: Thirteen Ways of Looking at Decorum (July 2016)

In exploring the concept of decorum, Shapiro’s lecture asks and attempts to answer this: in what ways does our historical moment inform if not determine our sense of propriety, or aptness? In an ostensibly informal democratic culture, committed in theory if not in practice to egalitarianism, how do we determine high or low, too much or too little, in style as well as subject? Texts considered include the Iliad and works by Ben Jonson, Wallace Stevens, and others.