This lecture represents an appeal for a certain understanding of the role of the liberal arts in a contemporary American university. That role is crucially tied to the 
function of the imagination, which must operate freely in the ongoing formation of personal and community identity. He will note particularly in this context two passages, at least, from supreme works of the literary imagination: one from Shakespeare’s “Hamlet,” the other from Toni Morrison’s “Beloved.”

Ralph G. Williams, received his Ph.D. from UM and subsequently taught at Cornell University, before returning to UM in 1970. In addition to teaching courses in Shakespeare, the Bible in English, and Primo Levi, he has directed the Program on Studies in Religion, lectured in the Department of Near Eastern Studies, helped develop the residencies at UM of England’s Royal 
Shakespeare Company, and directed UM’s program in Florence, Italy. He has received the Lifetime Golden Apple Award, the Carnegie Professor of the Year Award for Michigan, and taken a lead role in a recent movie filmed in Ann Arbor “Answer This.”

This is the last in a six-lecture series. The subject is The Power of the Liberal Arts.