Letter from the Chair

Harvard’s Department of Comparative Literature Newsletter Vol. 4 * OCTOBER 2013 “Detecting Voices: An Analysis of John Burdett’s Bangkok Trilogy”; Letter from the Chair Ilana Pardes (The Hebrew Universi- Dear friends of Comparative ty of Jerusalem): “Agnon’s Ethnog- Literature, raphies of Love: The Song of Songs in Israeli Culture”; Kathrin Rosen- It is my great pleasure to welcome field (Federal University of Rio you to the 2013-2014 academic year, Grande do Sul): “Brazil Liveliness with especially warm greetings to and Insight: Hölderlin’s Approach our new tenure-track hire Professor to Sophocles’ Tragedies”; and Law- Katharina Piechocki, who joins us rence Venuti (Temple University): from Pace University; our new co- “Translation, Intertextuality, Inter- hort of diverse first-year graduate pretation.” students, whose research interests 2013-2014 promises to be another cover everything from the Ameri- year of intellectual excitement, fea- cas, Europe, and the Middle East, turing among other public forums to Africa and East and South Asia; Chair Professor Karen Thornber the annual Poggioli Lecture on Oc- and our dynamic group of visiting Global, as well as on trauma, memo- tober 10 with Professor Carol Ja- scholars from around the world. As ry, and history, while last December, cobs, Birgit Baldwin Professor of both Chair and Director of Gradu- Professor Martin Puchner gave a Comparative Literature and Profes- ate Studies this year, I look forward dozen talks in China on world litera- sor of German Literature at Yale to working closely with everyone in ture and modern drama and capital- University. the months ahead. ism. For her part, last April Profes- I look forward with pleasure to Wherever I travel – this year sor Christie McDonald organized a working with faculty and students throughout the United States as well major international conference on this fall and spring to maintain and as to Asia, Europe, the Middle East, Proust – Proust and the Arts: In- extend the department’s record of and Africa – I encounter friends and terdiscplinary Conference on the intellectual rigor and excellence. fans of the department, and par- Centenary of Swann’s Way – which With warmest wishes for a pro- ticularly of our faculty, whose in- featured a panoply of speakers from ductive and stimulating year, ternational achievements continue the United States, France, and Japan. Karen Thornber to multiply. To give just several ex- Thanks particularly to Professor amples: Professor Gregory Nagy’s John Hamilton, last year, in addi- open access HarvardX (edX) course tion to “Proust and the Arts,” the Table of Contents: The Ancient Greek Hero – a survey Department of Comparative Lit- of ancient Greek literature focusing erature brought to campus a num- Letter from the Chair.........................1 on classical concepts of heroism – ber of globally renowned scholars, Letter from the DGS........................2 enjoys an enrollment of more than who shared their groundbreaking Letter from the Director of Studies....3 36,000 students and professionals work in a variety of forums. These World Literature News......................4 from around the world; this past included Professors Emily Apter Dana Palmer House (Crimson)........5 summer, Professor David Damros- (NYU): “Lexilalia: On Translating a ch directed the acclaimed Institute Schoolhouse Rock (Crimson)......6-8 Dictionary of Untranslatable Philo- Faculty News & Profiles.............8-12 for World Literature, which brought sophical Terms”; Kiene Brillenburg to the Harvard campus 140 graduate Wurth (Utrecht University) and Yra Former Comp Lit Lecturers..........12 students and young faculty members van Dijk (University of Amster- Student News & Profiles................13 from 28 countries for four weeks of dam): “Materialism and the Literary: Alumni News & Profiles..........13-21 dynamic seminars and workshops ‘Analog’ and ‘Digital’ Textualities”; Visiting Scholars Profiles...........21-22 on world literature; and last Novem- Brooke Holmes (Princeton Univer- Comp Lit Staff News......................22 ber, Professor Susan Suleiman gave sity): “Michel Serres’ Nonmodern Summary of Awards 2011-2013.....23 a lecture tour in China and Taiwan, Lucretius and the Temporality of Submissions & Editorial Info.........24 speaking at a number of universities Reception”; Suradech Chotiudom- and research centers on the French pant (Chulalongkorn University): Page 1 Letter from the Comp Lit Director of Graduate Studies tory, anthropology, philosophy, and has restructured the Comparative medicine. Literature program so as to attend In our graduate seminars students better to students’ needs as they analyze in comparative perspective prepare for a professional career in the literatures and other cultural the twenty-first century. New course products of Africa, the Americas, and language requirements allow Asia, Europe, and the Middle East. students to engage more fully in so- Coursework is designed to meet phisticated comparative work from individual interests and expecta- their very first year at Harvard. We tions. Our students are encouraged have also established specific guide- to complement seminars in Com- lines for advising and faculty feed- parative Literature with courses back from the first year through the in other literature and area stud- completion of the Ph.D. Our new ies departments (with which most Professing Literature seminar pre- Director of Graduate Studies Karen Thornber of our faculty hold joint appoint- pares students for academic careers It is my pleasure to welcome you ments), including African and Afri- teaching and conducting research to Harvard’s graduate program in can American Studies, the Classics, on literature, as well as a variety of Comparative Literature, one of East Asian Languages and Civiliza- non-academic professions. Part of the most dynamic and diverse in tions, English, Germanic Languages this seminar is the ongoing Renato the country. Our twenty-six faculty and Literatures, History, Near East- Poggioli Graduate Colloquium se- members and nearly fifty graduate ern Languages and Civilizations, Ro- ries, which enables students to pres- students have come from across the mance Languages and Literatures, ent their works-in-progress to peers globe to study, teach, and publish Slavic Languages and Literatures, and faculty. on literatures in several dozen lan- and South Asian Studies. Many of Given the nature of graduate proj- guages from a wide range of histori- our students also engage in interdis- ects, most of our students spend cal periods. The research generated ciplinary work, taking courses and time abroad, both for language here reflects an exhilarating scope often earning qualification in sec- training and research. This work is of methods, approaches, and ques- ondary fields such as Visual and En- largely funded by fellowships from tions. Critical theory, literary inter- vironmental Studies, Medieval Stud- the graduate school as well as from pretation, and comparative philol- ies, Music, and Studies of Women, Harvard’s many area centers. ogy provide the basis for work on Gender, and Sexuality. When in Cambridge, students en- translation, the history of ideas, The stunning range of our stu- joy our new home, the historic Dana gender, drama, oral poetics, multilin- dents’ dissertation projects is well Palmer House at 16 Quincy Street. gualism, postcolonialism, the envi- supported by Harvard’s unparalleled With its comfortable lounge and ronmental and medical humanities, library resources. Our library sys- meeting and seminar rooms, as well globalization, and world literature. tem, the largest university collection as administrative and faculty offices, Our students and faculty also work in the world, comprises 70 libraries, Dana Palmer House provides the in a variety of fields contiguous with with combined holdings of over 16 perfect setting for exceptionally col- literature, including architecture and million items. legial scholarly exchange. the visual arts, film and music, his- In the past few years, the faculty -Karen Thornber From left: Dr. François Proulx, Prof. Emmanuel Bouju (RLL, Fall 2012), Page 2 Dr. Daniel Bowles (German), Prof. John Hamilton, Prof. Bill Todd, guest, Björn Kühnicke (G6) Letter from the Literature Concentration Director of Studies Dear Lit alum, The first class of Lit students graduated in 1984, some 30 years ago this coming June. If you look back on their thesis titles—“Language as Dissidence,” “Music for the Reading Eye,” “Indeterminacy and the Gen- eration of Meaning,” to take a few random examples—you recognize quickly the spirit of intellectual ad- venture that characterized Literature then and still marks it today. Some things have changed. Topics of in- quiry have altered with the times: one senior last year examined narra- tives of global health, while another investigated irony in meme texts; and Lit is now the undergraduate Dr. Sandra Naddaff with David Foster Wallace biographer and Lit alum D. T. Max (AB 1984) wing of the Department of Com- number of professions, within the and your wisdom. It would be a parative Literature. The scope of Humanities and well beyond. Lit particular pleasure for me to hear di- the program, however, with its aca- students are professors, hedge fund rectly from you and to catch up on demic emphasis on working across managers, doctors, lawyers, archi- what you’ve been doing. languages and cultures and media, tects, entrepreneurs, public servants, I look forward to your news. In and its pedagogical

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