Co-editor Eric Hoffman presents the essay collection "Tearing the World Apart: Bob Dylan in the 21st Century," which examines post-millennial Dylan. This event is in conjunction with our special exhibit Bob Dylan: Electric.
"Tearing the World Apart" participates in the creation of the post-millennial Bob Dylan by exploring three central records of the twenty-first century - "Love and Theft" (2001), "Modern Times" (2006), and "Tempest" (2012) - along with the 2003 film "Masked and Anonymous," which Dylan helped write and in which he appears as an actor and musical performer.
No version of Dylan turns out uncomplicated, but the post-millennial manifestation seems peculiarly contrary--a tireless and enterprising antiquarian; a creator of singular texts and sounds through promiscuous poaching; an artist of innovation and uncanny renewal. This is a Dylan of persistent surrender from and engagement with a world he perceives as broken and enduring, addressing us from a past that is lost and yet forever present.
This collection of essays does justice to this difficult Bob Dylan by examining his method and effects through a disparate set of viewpoints. Readers will find a variety of critical contexts and cultural perspectives as well as a range of experiences as members of Dylan's audience. The essays in "Tearing the World Apart" illuminate, as a prism might, its intransigent subject from enticing and intersecting angles.
Eric Hoffman has published several collections of poetry. He is also the author of "Oppen: A Narrative," a biography of poet George Oppen. He has edited or co-edited several essay collections, including "Approaching Twin Peaks: Essays on the Original Series" and "Cerebus the Barbarian Messiah: Essays on the Epic Graphic Satire of Dave Sim and Gerhard." He has also edited three volumes of the University Press of Mississippi's celebrated Conversations with Comics Artists series. He is co-editor of "Tearing the World Apart" along with Nina Goss.
Books will be sold before and after the event.
