“William S. BURROUGHS in FLORIDA” ArtSPEAK@FSW lecture by Dr. S. E. GONTARSKI

Sponsored by the Richard & Julia Rush Endowment
Thursday, September 19th at 6pm (doors open)
Bob Rauschenberg Gallery at FSW
This event is open to the public, FREE of charge.
(Fort Myers, FL): Florida Southwestern State College is pleased to announce renowned William S. Burroughs and Samuel Beckett scholar Dr. S.E. GONTARSKI’s ArtSPEAK@FSW lecture/presentation “William S. Burroughs in Florida” at the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery on Thursday, September 19, 2024 at 6:30pm (doors open at 6pm).
Dr. S. E. Gontarski is Robert O. Lawton Distinguished Professor of English at Florida State University and received his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University (1974). Author or editor of more than 30 books including the Bloomsbury series, Understanding Philosophy, Understanding Modernism, Dr. Gontarski specializes in twentieth-century Irish Studies, in British, U.S., and European Modernism, in performance theory, and in Modernist book history, texts and textuality, with an emphasis on the works of Samuel Beckett and William S. Burroughs. He has been a Resident Fellow at the Djerassi Foundation, The Rockefeller Foundation at Bellagio, The Bogliasco Foundation, and a Visiting Scholar at the American Academy in Rome. His oft cited The Intent of Undoing in Samuel Beckett’s Dramatic Texts (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985) has become something of a classic among textual scholars, and the two volumes of The Theatrical Notebooks of Samuel Beckett are regularly consulted by scholars and theatrical directors alike. Dr. Gontarski’s recent books are: Beckett’s “Happy Day”: A Manuscript Study (2017), and Revisioning Beckett: Samuel Beckett’s Decadent Turn (Bloomsbury, 2018).
Currently completing his second book on William S. Burroughs to be published by Clemson University Press, Dr. Gontarski’s first volume on the subject was titled BURROUGHS UNBOUND: William S. Burroughs and the Performance of Writing (Bloomsbury, 2021) and was reviewed as follows by Barry Miles (author of Call Me Burroughs): “The last two decades have shown a tremendous growth in academic interest in the work of William S. Burroughs. No longer a fringe phenomenon, the Beat Generation, and it's leading proponents, William S. Burroughs, Allen Ginsberg and Jack Kerouac, are fully accepted as a well-defined literary movement alongside the Bloomsbury Group and the Lost Generation and possibly as the first home-grown one. The rapid development of scholarship in this area, and of Burroughs studies in particular, is extraordinary as is shown by this thought-provoking, sometimes ground-breaking, set of analytical and investigative essays by the World's leading authorities on Burroughs. It is fascinating to read so many different takes and approaches to Burroughs' work. There is deep intelligence at work here. I find some of the ideas inspiring, others are challenging, some thought-provoking and some I disagree with, which is how it should be.”
Sponsored by The Richard & Julia Rush Endowment in celebration of our on-going “William S. BURROUGHS & Laurie ANDERSON: Language is a Virus” exhibition, this special, one-time-only ArtSPEAK@FSW event is FREE and Open to the Public. Seating is limited and first-come, so doors will open at 6pm for the 6:30pm event.
More about us: The Bob Rauschenberg Gallery was founded as The Gallery of Fine Art in 1979 on the Lee County campus of Florida Southwestern State College/FSW (then Edison Community College). On June 4th 2004, the Gallery of Fine Art was renamed the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery to honor and commemorate our longtime association and friendship with the artist. Over more than three decades until his death, the Gallery worked closely with Rauschenberg to present world premiere exhibitions including multiple installations of the “¼ Mile or Two Furlong Piece”. The artist insisted on naming the space the Bob Rauschenberg Gallery (versus the “Robert Rauschenberg Gallery”) as it was consistent with the intimate, informal relationship he maintained with both our local Southwest Florida community and FSW.