Boca Talk - Florida's Literature and History

Professors Evan Bennett (History) and Taylor Hagood (English) examine the intersections of art, history, and literature in Florida. Professor Bennett offers historical context and insight by exploring the connection of image and reality in Florida history, using Harriet Beecher Stowe’s analogy of Florida to a tapestry–beauty on one side, mess stitches on the other. Professor Hagood compares the paintings, sculptures, photographs, and objects in the Museum’s Imagining Florida exhibition with the images created in the works of such writers as Ernest Hemingway, Zora Neale Hurston, and Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings. Thus, this program captures the richness of Florida imagery and the ways it has shaped and been shaped by historical and literary forces.