EVENTS
Reading Otherwise: The Ethics of Latin American Literary Criticism
A two-day colloquium hosted by the Department of Hispanic Languages and Literatures
October 21–22, 2005
University of Pittsburgh
2500-2501 Posvar Hall
Coordinator: Erin Graff Zivin (egz@pitt.edu)
The last several decades have witnessed a reorientation of the political and a globalization of the cultural in Latin America, shifting literature’s function as a homogenizing, citizen-forming institution to a more dispersed, fragmented, and (potentially) democratic and liberating practice. At the same time, and perhaps in response to this cultural shift, the field of Latin American literary studies has expanded to include cultural studies, performance studies, postcolonial theory, gender studies, Africana studies, and subaltern studies. In light of these dramatic transformations within a globalized Latin American culture as well as within the field of Latin American literary studies itself, what value (if any) can we attribute to aesthetics today? Is the reconsideration of artistic creation a mere return to the hegemonic lettered city, or can we begin to think about an “ethical potential” inscribed within the act of reading, that is, a traumatic encounter with otherness that irreversibly alters what Emmanuel Levinas terms “the imperialism of the same”? This two-day colloquium will bring together scholars on the cutting edge of literary and cultural theory to discuss the possibility of reading (texts, cultures, events) as ethical experience, paying particular attention to issues of subjectivity, victimization, agency, multitude, particularism, difference and representation.
Speakers
Idelber Avelar, Tulane University/Universidad de Chile
Gabriela Basterra, New York University/Collège International de Philosophie
Bruno Bosteels, Cornell University
Sergio Chejfec, Argentina/New York
Esther Gabara, Duke University
Francine Masiello, University of California at Berkeley
Alberto Moreiras, Duke University
Gabriel Riera, Princeton University
Doris Sommer, Harvard University
Conference Schedule
| Friday, October 21 |
2 p.m.–2:15 p.m. |
Welcome |
2:15 p.m.–3:45 p.m. |
Panel I. Ethics of the Event?
“Ethics, perhaps,” Gabriela Basterra (New York University / Collège International de Philosophie)
“The Ethical Superstition”, Bruno Bosteels (Cornell University)
Chair: Joshua Lund (University of Pittsburgh) |
4 p.m.–6 p.m. |
Panel II. Ethics and Cultural Studies
“Cultural Studies in the Blogosphere: Academics Meet New Technologies of Online Publication,” Idelber Avelar (Tulane University/Universidad de Chile)
“Infrapolitics and the Thriller: An Alternative Literary History,” Alberto Moreiras (Duke University)
“‘I Promise She Is a Woman’: Balmoreadas, Acciones, and the Gendering of Ethics,” Esther Gabara (Duke University)
Chair: Bobby Chamberlain (University of Pittsburgh) |
| Saturday, October 22 |
8:30 a.m.–9 a.m. |
Coffee and light breakfast |
9 a.m.–10:30 a.m. |
Panel III. The Limits of Literature
“Apuntes sobre mundos construidos,” Sergio Chejfec (Buenos Aires / New York)
“‘Regia Victoria’: Saer or for an Ethics of Writing,” Gabriel Riera (Princeton University)
Chair: Emily Maguire (Indiana University) |
10:45 a.m.–12:15 p.m. |
Panel IV. Reading lo popular, Reading the Particular
“Getting There First. The Experience of Reading,” Francine Masiello (University of California, Berkeley)
“Slaps and Embraces: The Ethical Erotics of Particularism,” Doris Sommer (Harvard University)
Chair: Jerome Branche (University of Pittsburgh) |
12:15 p.m.–1:15 p.m. |
Lunch Break |
1:30 p.m.–2:45 p.m. |
Roundtable Discussion
John Beverley (University of Pittsburgh)
Ronald A.T. Judy (University of Pittsburgh)
Giuseppina Mecchia (University of Pittsburgh)
Doris Sommer (Harvard University) |
2:45 p.m.–3 p.m. |
Closing Remarks |
3 p.m.–5 p.m. |
Wine and Cheese Reception |
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