Bob Dylan
The 1998 International Conference at Stanford University
January 17, 1998 Kresge Auditorium
In 1998 Stanford University sponsored the first international academic conference on Bob Dylan to be held in the United States. Approximately 400 people attended this event, organized by Tino Markworth with Rush Rehm.
PROGRAM
9-10 a.m.
Christopher Ricks (Core Curriculum, Boston University)
Bob Dylan: Not Dark Yet
10 a.m.-noon Panel 1
Moderator: Joshua Landy (French & Italian, Stanford University)
Tino Markworth (German Studies, Stanford University)
Too Much Educated Rap? Bob Dylan and Academia
Rush Rehm (Drama, Stanford University)
Only a Pawn in Their Game: Bob Dylan and Politics
Mark Gonnerman (Religious Studies, Stanford University)
The Sound of One Dog Barking: Bob Dylan and Religious Experience
1-3 p.m. Panel 2
Moderator: Robert Harrison (French & Italian, Stanford University)
Aldon Nielsen (English, Loyola Marymount University)
A Long Way from Hibbing: Bob Dylan's Black Masque
Stephen Ronan (author, assist. producer of The Jack Kerouac Collection)
The Visionary Road: Rimbaud, Kerouac, Dylan
Stephen Scobie (English, University of Victoria)
Renaldo & Allen: Allen Ginsberg's Role in 'Renaldo & Clara'
3:30-5:30 p.m. Panel 3
Moderator: Susan Dunn (Humanities Center, Stanford University)
Maria Johnson (Music, Southern Illinois University)
Performed Literature: The Music of Bob Dylan
Lonny Chu (Music, Stanford University)
In the Studio: The Recording Styles and Techniques of Bob Dylan
Paul Williams (author of Bob Dylan: Performing Artist)
Seeing the Real You at Last: Bob Dylan and His Audience
Sponsored by The Stanford Humanities Center
and Dean of Humanities & Sciences, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Department of Music, Department of English, Humanities Special Program, Department of Religious Studies, Department of French & Italian
Video tapes of the complete conference are available at the Stanford University Library.
Thanks to Ron Chester, Susan Dunn, Andy Hertzfeld, and Carol Langston.
MEDIA RESPONSE
It was 1998 and the academic culture wars were raging. On one side were the defenders of the faith, arguing that popular culture had no place in the university, that time was better spent familiarizing the students with the canonical works of high culture. On the other side were the devious postmodernists who tried to undermine the canon, leveling the field by making low or pop culture worthy of academic inquiry. While the high culture proponents argued that it was largely an aesthetic quality that made cultural artifacts part of the canon, the postmodernistas stated instead that aesthestic judgments were bogus anyway and the canon was rather an expression of power structures.
That Stanford University staged a conference about Bob Dylan at all – that was the news – and unfortunately not, how Dylan was framed and debated at the conference. Many saw it as a victory for this newfangled postmodernist or destructionist or whatever-it-is-called movement. For example Ron Rebholz, a perfectly nice professor from Stanford’s English Department, felt it necessary to take a public stand (San Francisco Chronicle, January 7, 1998) – even before the conference took place – to show that not all Stanford had succumbed to this academic trend.
A closer look, however, would have revealed that this was not a case of postmodernitis at all. There was no applause from the postmodern side within academia, in fact. And that was not surprising. This was a conference about an artist who was old, and white, and male – certainly not a good poster child for this latest academic fashion. And he was chosen because of the aesthetic quality of his work, not because of his current popularity. (It was early 1998, Dylan was still largely seen as a burned-out has-been – his first album with new songs in seven years had been released only a few months earlier). And, last not least, the postmodernists’ ever-so annoying mantra of “race, class and gender” was missing from most of the talks.
But while methodically conservative, the conference tried to break new ground in two ways: first, by taking Dylan seriously as an artist, and second, by not limiting our academic engagement to Dylan the writer. Instead, as the program above shows, it was conceived to analyze his work from different angles, attempting a multi-disciplinary approach.
The academic culture wars are largely forgotten nowadays as is the debate surrounding the event. The conference did not immediately trigger a full-blown academic fascination with Bob Dylan as I had hoped but it certainly helped pave the way for the numerous Dylan conferences in the last decade. (On this topic see David Cohen: “Surge of scholarly interest in Bob Dylan” The Guardian, May 21, 2001, and Evan R. Goldstein: “Dylan and the Intellectuals” Chronicle of Higher Education, September 5, 2010).
A GUIDE TO MEDIA COVERAGE OF THE CONFERENCE
Unfortunately, most of the articles about the conference are no longer accessible free of charge on the Web. Here are a few links that worked as of June 1, 2011:
About organizing the conference:
About the conference:
About the debate surrounding the conference:
Bill Workman: “Conference on Bob Dylan at Stanford.” San Francisco Chronicle, January 7, 1998
FULL LISTING OF COVERAGE
Media coverage following the announcement of the conference
“Bob Dylan subject of academic conference.” Associated Press, January 7, 1998
-. Chronicle of Higher Education, January 23, 1998
“Si studia Bob Dylan all’università.” La Repubblica, January 9, 1998
Elaine Goodman: “Stanford conference looks at Bob Dylan. Academic event explores singer’s lyrics, music.” Palo Alto Daily News, January 8, 1998
Jim Harrington: “Jukebox poet. Stanford University hosts the country’s first Bob Dylan conference, focusing on the man who ‘brought poetry to the jukebox.’” Palo Alto Weekly, January 16, 1998
Greg Frost: “Stanford University To Host Bob Dylan Conference.” Reuters, January 8, 1998
Bill Workman: “Conference on Bob Dylan at Stanford.” San Francisco Chronicle, January 7, 1998
January 12, 1998(Letter to the Editor)
Michelle Levander: “Knock, knock, knocking on academia’s door. Stanford to study Bob Dylan.” San Jose Mercury News, January 8, 1998
Paul Sterman: “Deconstructing Dylan.” San Mateo County Times and Oakland Tribune, January 15, 1998
Krista Glaser: “Dylan conference to be held on campus.” The Stanford Daily,
January 8, 1998
Brian Jones & Mark Bell: “I’m a Poet and I know it. Bob Dylan Conference and Controversy.” The Stanford Daily, January 15, 1998
“‘The answer, my friend’: An all-day Dylan conference.” Stanford Report, January 7, 1998
Wire services (AP/Reuters), January 8-9, 1998
Picked up by the following:
USA: Austin American Statesman, Cincinnati Enquirer, The Des Moines Register, Hartford Courant, Los Angeles Times, The News and Observer (Raleigh, N.C.), St. Louis Dispatch, USA Today, and others
Switzerland: Neue Züricher Zeitung
Netherlands: NRC Handelsblad
Germany: Süddeutsche Zeitung
RADIO (only coverage including interviews is listed):
BBC London, Radio 5, with Marita Eager, January 8, 1998
KGO Radio, San Francisco, with Kevin Patcher (two interviews), January 9 and January 13, 1998
KFRC Radio, San Francisco, January 14, 1998
Voice of America, with Martin Seacrest, January 15, 1998
Minnesota Public Radio, Minneapolis, January 16, 1998
TV: CNN
INTERNET: Gil Kaufman: “Stanford University To Hold Dylan Seminar. Professors and graduate students to study, life, times and music of folk-rock poet.” Addicted to Noise, January 8, 1998
Media coverage of the conference itself
Karen Hunt: “Stanford program explores another side of Bob Dylan. Pop culture: Lecturers compare singer-songwriters to great poets.” Associated Press, San Jose Mercury News, January 18, 1998
Paul Van Slambrouck: “Teaching Dylan at Tennyson’s Expense? A recent conference on the songwriter has spurred debate over pop culture’s place in academia.” Christian Science Monitor, January 21, 1998
La Stampa (Turin, Italy), January 19, 1998:
“Il caso. Stanford, prestigiosi accademici a convegno: così ha influenzato la nostra cultura.”
Lorenzo Soria: “Dylan? Si studia all’università. L’establishment si inchina al suo fustigatore.”
Claudio Gorlier: “La ballata dell’astuto intellettuale.”
Michael J. Ybarra: “Tennyson, Milton and … Bob Dylan? Culture: Academics and fans alike gather to study and analyze the works of the musical legend at a first-of-its-kind conference at Stanford.” Los Angeles Times, January 21, 1998
Dean Goodman: “Academics Debate The Real Bob Dylan.” Reuters, January
18, 1998
Dean Goodman: “Dylan Fans Get Tangled Up In Academic Views.” Reuters, February 2, 1998
James Sullivan: “Answers Blowin’ in the Stanford Wind. Academic types deconstruct Dylan.” San Francisco Chronicle, January 19, 1998
Lisa Krieger: “Times are a-changing: Academics debate Dylan.” San Francisco Examiner, January 18, 1998 (also Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, January 19, 1998)
J.S.: “Talkin’ Bob Dylan Academic Conference Blues.” San Francisco Weekly (Riff Raff), January 21, 1998
Ginny McGormick: “Doctorate in Dylan?” Stanford Magazine, March/April 1998
Wire services (AP/Reuters), January 18-20, 1998:
Picked up by The Baltimore Sun, The Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN), The Daily News of Los Angeles, The Orange County Register, The Sacramento Bee, Star Tribune (Minneapolis, MN)
RADIO (only coverage including interviews is listed):
German Public Broadcasting, with Ingrid Koelle, January 19, 1998:
Südwestfunk 2, Kultur am Abend; Deutschlandfunk, Kultur heute;
Bayern 5; Westdeutscher Rundfunk 3
-, Chicago, January, 18, 1998
JWay, Tokio, January, 18, 1998
KFOG, San Francisco, with Kim Wonderly
INTERNET
rec.music.dylan: Report from the Academy, January 18, 1998
Michael Batty: “All along the ivory tower. A recent Dylan symposium at Stanford proved that as rock fans, academics can babble with the most brain-dead metalheads.” Salon.com, January 1998
[EDLIS Notes]
Tino Markworth compiled this exhaustive summary of the Stanford conference. As you can see, it generated quite a lot of coverage in the media and this blog will be reporting on the after-effects of this ground-breaking event, with the many Dylan courses that are springing up all over the world. Markworth's vision for the study of Dylan in academia is truly coming to fruition.