We are pleased to announce that this semester’s final MRRG meeting will feature a presentation by Robin D'Souza (Anderson). The meeting will take place at 4 PM on Friday, December 15th in Room 617 of the Jackman Humanities Building (170 St. George Street). We will begin with a 20 minute presentation by Robin followed by an extended feedback session in which Robin would like to invite discussion, questions, and suggestions regarding both the content and the form of her presentation.
Robin’s presentation will be titled “[Her Pity] was Like a Flaming Sword”: Chivalric Ethics and the Re-Forming of Empathy in Rebecca West’s The Return of the Soldier. Robin’s talk examines the ways in which The Return of the Soldier prioritizes pity, and not just memory loss, as the connection between Chris Baldry and his long lost love Margaret, arguing that West intentionally re-forms pity, a chivalric and knightly virtue, by focusing on women and their empathetic communal connections, as well as on their failure to connect. For more details on the talk, please see the attached abstract.