A memorial service for Hugh Kenner, widely considered one of the giants of 20th-century literary criticism, will be held in the Chapel on April 16, beginning at 3:30 p.m. The event is open to the public.
Among featured speakers will be Kenner’s longtime friend, author and political commentator William F. Buckley, and noted scholars Marjorie Perloff and Guy Davenport.
Kenner, who spent the last decade of his career on the faculty of the department of English at UGA, died on Nov. 24 from heart failure at the age of 80.
Buckley is among the best-known political and literary figures of the 20th century; he has written numerous books on politics as well as the popular Blackford Oakes series of spy novels. Davenport is an internationally noted scholar, now retired from the University of Kentucky. His latest book is called The Death of Picasso: New and Selected Writing. Marjorie Perloff is the Sadie Dernham Patek Professor of Humanities Emerita at Stanford University and a prolific critic and writer.
Master of ceremonies will be Barry Ahern, a professor at Tulane University and a scholar of literary modernism. Music will be provided by the band Banish Misfortune.
