Aspects of Bruce

MORE THAN 150 presenters spoke at the ''Glory Days" symposium on Sept. 9-11, covering 35 topics from ''Activism and Springsteen" to ''Literary Analysis and Springsteen."

Here are a few highlights from abstracts posted on the symposium website.

. . .

''Springsteen continues a long line of American artists alive to the competing demands of the self and the society in which it finds a home....he is getting at a sophisticated way of being and understanding in which opposites are held simultaneously in creative tension."

- ''What's Flesh and What's Fantasy: Unresolved Contradiction in Bruce Springsteen," by John Engle, Universite du Sud-Toulon-Var

. . .

''Bruce's songs are infused with sacramental symbols such as water, light, and marital union. Such images suggest a Catholic, incarnation sensibility that sees divine grace infusing mundane reality..."

- ''The Cross of My Calling: The Christocentric Imagination of Bruce Springsteen," by Paul J. Contino, Pepperdine University

. . .

''After September 11, Springsteen posited himself as a faith healer, a shaman who reaffirmed concepts of universal brotherhood and community through an exploration of loss, suffering and redemption."

- ''Boss as Shaman: Religion and the Politics of the Post-September 11 Bruce," by Bryan K. Garman, principal, Sidwell Friends School

. . .

''[Detractors insist] Springsteen's success and wealth disqualify him from speaking for the underclass.

The preoccupation with [authenticity], however, poses an unappreciated threat: By limiting who can express blue-collar concerns, it delimits the range of voices that constitute the vox populi and erases the presence of the working class in depictions of American society."

- ''Bruce Springsteen, Authenticity, and the Cultural Resistance to Voicing the Vox Populi," by Kirk Curnutt, Troy University-Montgomery