Each year, the Faculty of Humanities at the University of Calgary presents a talk by an expert on the current Nobel Laureate in Literature. This year Virginia Tiger, from Rutgers University, gives the Humanities Nobel Lecture on Doris Lessing, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in October.

Tiger examines how Lessing has, for the past 58 years, spoken directly to more than one generation’s experience. Lessing's work displays a wide range of themes–from left-wing politics, feminism and sexual license to the generation gap, religious zealotry, schizophrenia, racism, terrorism, and the climactic calamities of drought, flash floods, and war. Like Cassandra, Lessing tells us the things we do not want to hear.

Born to British parents in Persia (now Iran) in 1919, Doris Lessing grew up in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe). Her 55 works include The Grass is Singing, The Golden Notebook, the Children of Violence series, The Good Terrorist, and two autobiographies. Her latest novel, The Cleft, was published in 2007.

A graduate of the University of Toronto and the University of British Columbia, Tiger is a professor and chair of the Department of English at Rutgers University—Newark. She is the author of four books, most recently William Golding: The Unmoved Target. She is the cofounder and executive officer of the Doris Lessing Society, an Allied Organization of the MLA.

Free. All are welcome. Reception to follow lecture.

For more information, contact 220.8177 or leej@ucalgary.ca.