Back to College Class: "Making Abraham Lincoln Ours"

Streaming Media

Publication Date

10-17-2014

Comments

Bob Bray, R. Forest Colwell Professor of English at Illinois Wesleyan University, gave a Back to College Class on Oct. 17, 2014 during Homecoming activities.

Abstract

Bray discusses the symbiosis among history, biography and drama in telling the life story of Abraham Lincoln. He talks with alumni about how he came to work first on Lincoln's reading and self-education, and then how that led to his new Lincoln play, "Lincoln in Limbo." Bray explains the concept behind the drama -- that it takes place within Lincoln's "shadow mind" between the time the assassin's bullet enters the back of his head at Ford's Theatre and the death pronounced early the next morning across the street from the theater. The session concludes with a reading of one of the scenes from the play, with attendees invited to take and share the parts.

Disciplines

Higher Education

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