King's College London
Strand Campus, Strand, London WC2R 2LS
UK
Part of the Arts & Humanities Festival 2013: Being | Human
crisis, n.
Pronunciation: Brit. /ˈkrʌɪsɪs/ , U.S. /ˈkraɪsᵻs/
Etymology: < Latin crisis, < Greek κρίσις discrimination, decision, crisis, <κρίνειν to decide.
1. Pathol. The point in the progress of a disease when an important development or change takes place which is decisive of recovery or death; the turning-point of a disease for better or worse; also applied to any marked or sudden variation occurring in the progress of a disease and to the phenomena accompanying it.
3. transf. and fig. A vitally important or decisive stage in the progress of anything; a turning-point; also, a state of affairs in which a decisive change for better or worse is imminent; now applied esp. to times of difficulty, insecurity, and suspense in politics or commerce.
OED
On crises within the art of literature and within the study of literature; a talk by literary critic and scholar Christopher Ricks.
Biography:
Christopher Ricks is at Boston University, having previously taught at Oxford, Bristol, and Cambridge. He was the Professor of Poetry at Oxford, 2004-2009. Editor of Tennyson, Henry James as well as James Henry, T.S. Eliot, and The Oxford Book of English Verse, he is the author of books on Milton, Tennyson, Keats, Beckett, Eliot, and Bob Dylan.