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Literature and Poetry | Nature and The Environment | Movies and Media

This lecture meets the following New York State Learning Standards:
Language Arts 1.1 | Social Studies 2.1 | Social Studies 3.1 | Social Studies 3.2

All Things Herriot: James Herriot and His Peaceable Kingdom

A lecture by Sanford Sternlicht

Surely the planet's best-known veterinarian is "James Herriot," the pen name of James Alfred Wight (1916-1995). His books have been translated into more than a dozen languages, and the readers span ages nine to ninety. Two feature length films, as well as a BBC television series, begun in 1978 and titled "All Creatures Great and Small," have created a powerful visual image of a pre-World War II Yorkshire, frozen in time through perpetual reruns throughout the globe. The essential drama of the memoirs is the symbolic reenactment of the physician's combat with death, with the struggle transferred from people to animals. But Herriot's stories are really about us, our reverence for life; our need for compassionate and successful healers; and our love and respect for the animal kingdom. Herriot employs one of the oldest techniques of the homiletic storyteller, assuring us his tale his true, when in fact it is a carefully constructed narrative with an implied reader clearly in mind. Herriot creates a vision of old Yorkshire that reminds Americans of our early New England history, replete with traditional values, and where mothers are always loved, fathers respected and obeyed, marriage a sacrament, divorce rare, honesty a given, and prevarication shameful. This lecture relates Herriot's life and portrays his art, beginning with a dramatic reading of a typical Herriot tale.

This lecture is available from January 1, 2009 to January 1, 2012

Can be tailored to a high school audience

Setup Needed

Microphone optional

Professor Sanford Sternlicht

Professor of English, Syracuse University

Sanford Sternlicht is a Professor of English at Syracuse University. He was born in New York City and he studied at CCNY, SUNY Oswego (B.S.), Colgate University (M.A. with Distinction), Syracuse University (Ph.D.). He was Leverhulme Visiting Professor of English at York University England 1965-66, and Fulbright Senior Specialist and Visiting Professor of English at the University of Pecs, Hungary, Spring 2004.

In 1994 Prof. Sternlicht received a research grant for the study of Irish Drama in Northern Ireland from the British Council. The English-Speaking Union awarded him Sir Evelyn travel/lecture grants in 1997, 1998, 1999. Among his teaching awards is the Chancellor of the State University of NY Medal for Excellence in Teaching, 1974.

Professor Sternlicht is the author of over thirty books on Literary Criticism, Biography, Genre Theory, and Poetry. He has broadcast on the BBC Home Service, the BBC International Service, and the Radio TV Eire.

Telephone:

(315) 472-5639

Address:

Syracuse University, English Department
Hall of Languages
Syracuse, NY 13244
Onondaga County

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