Huddle with the Faculty - "Authorship, Nostalgia, and the Beatles"

Learn about the Beatles’ development as an artistic fusion during this talk that explores the band’s creative arc from their first, primitive recordings through Abbey Road and the twilight of their career. In addition to considering the band’s increasing self-consciousness about the overall production, design, and presentation of their art, we will explore the Beatles’ albums as a collection of musical and lyrical impressions working toward a sense of aesthetic unity. In so doing, we’ll also look at the myriad ways in which the Beatles gave life to a musical synthesis that would change the world.

Kenneth Womack is a professor of English and associate dean for academic affairs at Penn State Altoona. He serves as editor of Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: A Journal of Criticism and Theory and as co-editor of Oxford University Press’s Year’s Work in English Studies. He is the author or editor of more than 20 books, including Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatle (2007) and the Cambridge Companion to the Beatles (2009). He is the author of two novels, including John Doe No. 2 and the Dreamland Motel and The Restaurant at the End of the World.