Intersections Spring 2013 We’Re Hosting the ACLA 2014 Convention! by Ozen Dolcerocca

Department of Comparative Literature New York University

Intersections Spring 2013 We’re hosting the ACLA 2014 Convention! by Ozen Dolcerocca

ty of these questions is rooted from a local to a global sense panel will focus on the Diction- in the semantic density of the of capital, and vice versa? How ary of Untranslatables, co- term ‘capital’ itself. can we trace effects of the edited by Emily Apter, Jacques

movement from a local to a Lezra and Michael Wood. The Unpacking these diverse va- global sense of capital and vice tentative plenary session will lences, in turn, points to the versa? be organized by the Center for Our department is very excit- capital importance of the term Ancient Studies. ed to announce that it will host for the critical projects in Possible topics falling under the annual meeting of The which Comparative Literature this heading include, but are Special thanks to Carlos Aguir- American Comparative Litera- is engaged. Marx has pointed to not limited to: The Metropolis re and Sonia Werner for their ture Association in Spring 2014 the hegemonic configurations and the Metropole; Empire and contribution to the CFP and to at NYU Washington Square that emerge around capital; the (Post)Colonies; Cultural the ACLA Organization Com- Campus. What hegemonic configura- Capitals; Capitalization; the mittee!

tions/configurations of power Persistence of Capital; Econo- The theme of next year’s con- and privilege emerge around my of Translations; the Center We welcome and encourage ference is “CAPITALS”. The capitals? What constitutes a and the Periphery; Canons and everyone’s involvement. Stay 2014 ACLA meeting in New capital? What institutes a capi- Capital and The Capital and the tuned for more information on York City offers a singular op- tal? How does capital move? Corporeal. this exciting event! portunity to interrogate the How do we move a capital? city’s tenuous reputation as a How do we spend (political, In addition to a plenary session, global capital. As other cities economic, cultural) capital? workshops, and other events in Ozen Dolcerocca is a 5th year Ph.D are gradually overtaking New How do we accumulate it? and around the New York Uni- student and is coordinating the de- York as a political, cultural, and How do we understand the versity campus, the ACLA partment’s side of ACLA 2014. financial hub, in what sense can fragmentation of capitals and 2014 conference is centered we still speak of New York capital? How do competing around 8-12 person panel/

City as a global capital? In what capitals negotiate their spheres seminars meeting for either sense do we speak of capitals of influence or dominance? two or three days and intended (and capital) at all? The difficul- What happens when we shift to foster discussion. One such Inside the Issue: Speaker Series: New Directions in Comparative Literature ACLA 1 by Anastasiya Osipova Speaker Series 1 Grad Colloquium 2 With funding from the Arts and Science deans, Comp Lit launched a special Speaker Series this year to explore cutting-edge New Directions Political Concepts 111 3 in Comparative Literature. To guide us in this exploration, we invited Poetics and Theory 4 exciting scholars at the forefront of such new comparative, interdisciplinary directions – Roberto Dainotto (Duke), Karen Pinkus (Cornell), Eyal Place & Sanders Perform! 4 Peretz (Indiana), Jennifer Bajorek (NYU/London), and Lynn Enterline Alumni Highlight Wang Ping 5 (Vanderbilt). First up: Roberto Dainotto.

Brio Undergraduate Journal 6 In October of 2012, the Depart- Place, Literature, he continues to Grad News 8 ment of Comparative Literature investigate the questions of the at NYU was delighted to wel- national and place in literature, Alumni News 9 come back its own graduate, while sustaining rigorous atten- Roberto Dainotto. Since de- tion to the problems of history fending his dissertation, All Re- and politics. gions Do Smilingly Revolt: Region, (cont on page 2) Page 2 Speaker Series cont... Dainotto is now professor of Ital- culture and ideology, (II) the issue perspective of marginalized south- traced a variety of Western theo- ian at Duke University. With his of the metaphysics of place as ern writers – such as an eighteenth ries of the novel and focused a lively and witty writing style, something that does not allow an -century Spanish Jesuit Juan An- great deal on Erich Auerbach’s “localized” expertise of Italian account for history and lacks ideo- drés. This book is an exciting Mimesis to evaluate the historical culture and a truly comparativist logical dimension. attempt to theorize Europe both conditions that gave “rise” to this rigor, he never loses sight of histo- from the southern margins and genre. Present in the audience ry and ideology in favor of geogra- from the center, borrowing much were Kristin Ross, Ana Dopico, His dissertation was eventually phy. He is a wonderful example of of its strategies and discourse from Gabriela Basterra, Jacques Lezra as developed into Place in Literature: a scholar who manages to wear postcolonial and subaltern studies well as several students whose Regions, Cultures, Communities both “national” and “comparatist” and was awarded the 2010 Shan- research is tightly connected with (Cornell UP, 2000). He followed non Prize in Contemporary Euro- theories of the novel. Both the hats with elegance. this work with Europe (in Theory) talk and the Q&A session that (Duke UP, 2007), which offers a pean Studies. followed were lively, rigorous, and The following problems have occu- genealogy of Eurocentrism. In this engaging. It was a great honor to pied a central place in Dianotto’s text, Dainotto sets out to reveal The talk that Roberto Dainotto have Professor Dainotto return to work since his days at NYU: (1) Eurocentrism’s underlying dialecti- gave at NYU, titled “History and his Alma Mater, and both students the extent to which notions of the cal nature by addressing not only the Novel”, was an excerpt from and faculty are looking forward to national and the regional can be the commonplace theories of Eu- his forthcoming book concerning useful in representing and theoriz- rope (Montesquieu, Voltaire, Mad- the theory of the novel and its further dialogue in the future. ing the heterogeneous and shifting ame de Stael, Hegel), but also the relationship to history. Dainotto Anastasiya Osipova is a 6th year PhD student in Comp Lit, whose work focuses on the rhetoric of vitality in Soviet literary theory and the novels of production of the 1920s and 1930s.

Speaker Series Scholars—Roberto Dainotto (Duke University), Karen Pinkus (Cornell), Eyal Peretz (Indiana), Jennifer Bajorek (NYU/London), and Lynn Enter- line (Vanderbilt).

Notes on the Colloquium by Nienke Boer

Looking through the archives of world, is a wonderful reminder of mester, we’ll come up with a new Our first event for the Spring se- the Comp Lit Graduate Student the varied and interesting group of strategy – until then, look out for mester was a presentation by Ilya Colloquium website (http:/ com- friends I have met since starting tasty, hearty catering! Kliger, a faculty member in the paratorium.wordpress.com/), I’m here almost four years ago. department of Russian and Slavic struck by an inappropriately strong Studies, speaking on “Untimely tide of nostalgia – inappropriate The final event at the end of last Community: Tragic Nationalism in both because the events listed But I digress (quite unforgivably). semester was a discussion of a pre Dostoevsky and Nietzsche.” Stay there happened in the recent past, Stepping into the almost unfillable -distributed paper by new depart- tuned for more Spring semester and also since, as this article void left by Sage Anderson’s de- mental faculty hire Jay Garcia on programming! parture to Berlin at the end of last "Richard Wright's Comic Correc- proves, the colloquium is very much alive and kicking and in no semester, we very quickly realized tive." We followed up on this suc- Nienke Boer is a 4th year PhD student in danger of fading into departmental that her (metaphorically, just to be cessful model by starting off this Comparative Literature. Her dissertation is legend. clear) enormous shoes could only year with other new faculty hire on the narratives produced by large group be filled by a committee of dedi- Emma Bianchi’s pre-distributed displacements between South Africa and cated organizers (the secret: a paper, “Becoming Mythological: South Asia in the 19th&early 20th Centu- Looking back at past events does, group of people who respond Barthes with Butler and Aristotle.” ries. however, evoke exactly that sense promptly to emails, and a goog- Our second event last semester of departmental community that legroup to coordinate them). Our comprised of presentations by our funding applications stress recipe for this year has been: few- current Ph.D. candidates Liang- every year – I remember attending er events; more lavish catering Hua Yu and Bilal Hashmi (special one of these as an accepted candi- (something that appeals to the thanks to Bilal, who came all the date in Spring 2009, and in my first graduate student mentality, and way from Toronto for the collo- week here as a student in the Fall. perhaps also that of many a faculty quium.) They presented on, re- Colloquia have marked other im- member…) We’ve been assisted in spectively, “Locked in the Present: portant milestones, but, even this regard by a generous Student Time Travel Romance, Neoliberal more importantly, reading the Life Grant from the Graduate Governance and the Rise of a Digi- names of student presenters, most Student Government. When we, tal Sinosphere” and “Naturalism of whom are now gainfully em- somewhat inevitably, run out of Redux” both papers distilled from ployed and/or elsewhere in the funds towards the end of the se- chapters of their dissertations. Page 3 Reworking Political Concepts III by Charles Gelman

ery. While broadly encyclope- on “Enough”; and Avital Ronell, Whether or not you were able dic in its form (each contribu- on “Authority.” George Shul- to make it to the conference tor is asked to “define” a single man, a beloved professor in the this year, we strongly recom- concept in view of its specifical- Gallatin School of Individualized mend that you keep an eye on ly political significance), the Study, also chaired a panel, Political Concepts as it continues project seeks less to collate while Ben Kafka, of the Depart- to expand, with new entries established or conventional ment of Media, Culture, and published each year, as it is definitions than, on the contra- Communication, delivered a sure to be a significant and ry, to foreground and to exam- paper on the concept of lasting resource for students ine what in such definitions has “Repression.” Other presenta- and faculty alike. heretofore remained implicit tions included Souleymane Charles Gelman is a second-year Jacques Lezra , conference co-organizer, and unquestioned, and so to Bachir Diagne (Columbia), on Ph.D. student working on modern spoke on the concept of “Enough.” resituate each concept in its “Time”; Banu Bargu (New French and German letters, literary On March 1-2, 2013, NYU relation to political discourse School), on “Sovereignty”; theory, and philosophy. took its turn at hosting the and practice. Thus, the project Richard J. Bernstein (NSSR), on annual Reworking Political is not a lexicon in any tradi- “Violence”; Joan Copjec Concepts Conference, orga- tional sense but first and fore- (SUNY Buffalo), on “Sexual nized by Adi Ophir (Tel Aviv most an open-ended forum for Difference”; Nilüfer Göle University), Ann Stoler (New critical and constructive en- (EHESS), on “Contemporary”; School for Social Research), gagement with those ideas that, Stathis Gourgouris (Columbia), Hagar Kotef (Columbia Univer- in one way or another, from on “Human/Animal”; Nitzan sity), and Jacques Lezra (NYU). the quotidian to the exception- Lebovic (Lehigh), on The conference benefited from al, affect us all. “Biometrics”; James Miller the generous support of the (NSSR), on “Consent”; Juan Humanities Initiative and the Obarrio (Johns Hopkins), on Department of Comparative The Department of Compara- “Interest”; Antonio Vazquez- Literature at NYU, the New tive Literature had a particular- Arroyo (Minnesota), on School for Social Research, the ly strong presence at this year’s “Liberal Democracy”; Roy Institute for Comparative Liter- conference, with paired Wagner (Hebrew Univ.), on ature and Society at Columbia, presentations by Emily Apter, “Alienation”; and Yves Winter and the Columbia University on “Impolitic”; Jacques Lezra, (Minnesota), on “Siege.” Society of Fellows in the Hu- manities, as well as from the invaluable assistance of Todd Kesselman (NSSR).

Reworking Political Concepts is a conference held yearly by the editors of Political Concepts: A Critical Lexicon (www.political concepts.org) an annual journal devoted to critically reinvigor- ating political discourse by chal- lenging inherited understand- ings of ideas that figure in it both centrally and, often in unsuspected or at least unana- lyzed ways, around its periph- Souleymane Bachir Diagne (Columbia) on “Time” and Nilüfer Göle (EHESS) on “Contemporary” Page 4

Poetics and Theory by Liza Blake Beginning in the Fall of 2011, gram that at once provides a work done across disciplinary the interdisciplinary graduate formal, institutional supplement P&T also organized a series of lines. This year offered two certificate Poetics and Theory to graduate degrees through events, including its annual Sep- P&T seminars: Professor (P&T) came to reside largely in coursework and conference tember “Meet and Greet” as Jacques Lezra’s “Lyric and Ab- NYU Comparative Literature presentation opportunities, and well as a talk by newly arrived jection” and Professor Anselm Department. Poetics and Theo- hosts a series of internal and English Professor Richard Haverkamp’s “State of the Art: ry is “a transdisciplinary pro- external speakers as well as Halpern entitled, “‘What do we The Practice of Theory in Lit- gram that provides an institu- several more informal events do now, now that we’re hap- erary History.” tional framework for diverse and activities. Since its move to py?’: Kojève and Beckett on the theoretical initiatives and prac- Comparative Literature, the End of History.” We also orga- Anyone interested in being tices,” which is to say, a pro- Poetics and Theory program nized a series of events with involved in P&T events or en- has become incredibly active. Armen Avanessian and Anke rolling in the graduate certifi- Hennig from the Speculative cate should check out the Last year the graduate students Poetics/Spekulative Poetik website at http : / poetics and in P&T, many from Comp Lit, group. A series of seminars on theory.com. Make sure to get organized a monthly Spinoza Speculative Poetics led to a day your name on our email list to reading group; this year, we -long workshop on Speculative keep up to date! read Hegel’s Phenomenology of Worlds, which included pre- Spirit slowly, carefully, and circulated papers from Paul Liza Blake is a PhD student in English, while consuming several bot- North, Kevin McLaughlin, and completing her dissertation on early modern literary physics, and is one of P&T's tles of wine per session. The Suhail Malik. two graduate coordinators. Next year she P&T reading group is consid- will be starting as an Assistant Professor at ered the heart of the program The Poetics and Theory Certif- the University of Toronto. for many of its students, and icate offers interdisciplinary Assistant Professor of German, Leif Weatherby toasts to Poetics and Theory not only because of the free classes and a formal recogni- and camaraderie. snacks and wine. tion on graduate transcripts of Minstrel Shows and Fanagalo: On Stage with Vanessa Place & Mark Sanders! by Jay Garcia

On October 18, 2012, the De- ly rich mix of performance, the late nineteenth and early of origin” that could be said to partment of Comparative Lit- theory and conversation. twentieth centuries was satu- inaugurate the practices of erature hosted the premiere of rated in imagery. Sheet music minstrel performance. Prem- a new work by the poet and covers from the minstrel tradi- ised on this lack of origin, performance artist Vanessa Place began the night with tion emerged in steady succes- Place’s performance produces Place. “The Black and White “The Black and White Minstrel sion throughout the perfor- a sense of dislocation as her Minstrel Show” was Place’s Show,” a hypnotic exploration mance by way of PowerPoint, first work revolving explicitly of the American racial imagi- providing audience members (Cont. on page 7) around the themes of “race nary centered on the figure of with a sense of the vast pro- and mimicry.” Following Place, the “coon shouter.” Integral to duction of ephemera that our own Mark Sanders deliv- the overall repertoire of Amer- helped to bring blackface min- ican performance, the coon strelsy and its various interest- “Sheet music covers shouter was typically a white ed parties to life. woman who styled herself after from the minstrel blackface minstrel singers. Tak- tradition emerged in ing on the role of the coon Place deepened her interest in shouter, Place read her lines the meanings of the minstrel steady succession” from sheets that fell to the tradition by spending time in ground as she finished with archives, including the Sheet ered his own performance, them. As she read, a series of Music Collection at the John “Fanagalo: A Golden Oldie.” projected images appeared Hay Library at Brown Universi- Among the highlights of the fall before the audience that ty. It was amid archival re- semester, the double bill pro- demonstrated the significant sources that Place came to the vided the forum for an unusual- extent to which the vaudevilli- conclusion that there was “no an world of “coon songs” in point of authenticity, no point Page 5 Alumni Highlight - A Conversation with Wang Ping by Nafeesa Dawoodbhoy

Wang Ping has an impressive consider poetry to be and I have New Yorkers are better, I lived whiskey at the airport. I was résumé since graduating from to teach this art in a second in New York for 13 years. I'm devastated but later on I found NYU with her Ph.D. in compara- tongue. It's not hard for me but a more of an east coaster, I'm out that the guy I was talking to tive literature and is currently lot of students have difficulty straight to the point you know.” is Lord Charles Bruce and he teaching creative writing at understanding me and we have We both laugh. promised to send me a whole Maclaster College. As I called her case of the whiskey! That was up on what was a particularly how I met Lord Bruce and ended chilly New York Monday, I felt it up writing the sonnets for him. only fitting to begin with a ques- The first sonnet came to me and tion about her beginnings at Bei- I would write to keep writing, it jing University which she had became an obsession and even- entered with only primary edu- tually turned into a crown. I’m in cation. “Apart from being really the process of setting it to music smart you must’ve also been with Alex Wand.” intimidated or at least scared to go into such a setting with little “Did Lord Bruce ever send you background?” “Not at all,” she the whiskey?” replies in a rather matter of fact “No, never, I must remind him.” way. “When I was in that situa- tion I was simply forced to use I asked Ping if she had any part- all kinds of methods to get what- ing words of advice for young ever I could. It was communist students and she says, just know China, I wasn't intimidated, I the longest journey is to know wanted to learn and I wanted to yourself and the amazing thing push my way through. I skipped a about knowing yourself is that year in fact,” she says mischie- anything is possible, you have vously. infinite potential. Never close the doors and the windows in I proceeded to ask what her your mind.” Ping is also a pho- favorite part of her résumé was tographer and multi-media artist. since she had come a long way She has had three photo and from her time at Beijing Univer- multi-media exhibitions since sity. “Hmmm I don't know, I like Wang Ping: Associate Professor of English, Creative Writing, , Fiction and Poetry and 2007: "Behind the Gate: China in to do different things. Well, right general Renaissance Woman Flux" at Janet Fine Arts Gallery, now I'm becoming a Chinese S t . P a u l medical doctor, when you called to work together. A lot of stu- (www.behindthegateexhibit.org), I was taking a gynecology class dents don't really understand The topic moves to the Sonnet "All Roads to Lhasa" at Banfille- on how to treat women with that it's not just about language Crown as I ask her “What in- Locke Culture Center, and herbs. I've been treating patients it's about methods, it's a journey. spired you to write it?” "Kinship of Rivers" at the Open that North Americans have no The most difficult journey is to E y e F i g u r e T h e a t r e idea how to treat. Mostly pain know who you are.” Wang Ping “I was invited to a poetry reading (www.kinshipofrivers.org). issues, depression and infertility, often throws in rather wistfully in Scotland and I was also making I'm treating an MS patient, an deep, meaningful reflections on a film when Allen Ginsburg, who HIV patient. I’m most interested life that seem to be quite telling I was working with on a poetry Nafeesa Dawoodbhoy is a senior in in working with pain and depres- of her caring and curious nature. project, asked me to go to Lon- Comparative Literature and the sion.” don and do a recording. I didn't editor of Brio, the Comp Lit Under- Wang Ping is deeply involved in really want to, I wanted to hike graduate Journal. Finding this fascinating and seem- her students as she says, “I've around the highlands instead but ingly unrelated to Ping's other overcome a lot to get through to he really made me go and I took Correction: May 3, 2013: work I asked her why she chose them – usually we become a a train to work and then I flew An earlier version of this to get involved in this field. “I family, because we really have to to Edinburgh to fit in a hike. interview misstated the work really hard and I get really trust each other. You see, Min- While I was waiting in the air- name of the filmmaker who stressed out and I'm in pain a lot nesota is a euphemism for stay- port with a very expensive bottle invited Wang Ping to record so this work is quite personal. In ing on the surface and not going of whiskey that I was very excit- the poems she wrote for his my work environment as a wom- very deep, I have to challenge ed to bring home, a guy sat film installation “Ten Thou- an and as an immigrant it is diffi- that.” I laugh, “Do you think down next to me and we started sand Waves”. It is Isaac Ju- cult to teach something that is New York is better with that?” chatting, we got onto the flight lien, the British filmmaker, the height, the tip of art which I Quite easily she says, “I think and I ended up forgetting my not Allen Ginsberg. Page 6

Brio,The Undergraduate Comparative Literature Journal Brio was revived in Fall 2010 and since has flourished into a prominent campus publication. Much like its definition, Brio is full of vivacity in both its publication and our dedicated team of editors. The journal is committed to representing comparative literature in all of its inter-disciplinary glory and we encourage submissions of poetry, prose, visual art, critical essays and foreign language pieces. During 2012-2013, we doubled our submissions through successful advertising and publicity throughout campus. We were also able to increase our budget to include prizes for our submission categories and host a celebratory reading and launch of the journal. The prizes for poetry and prose pieces were selected by Professor Jacques Lezra and the prizes for visual art and critical essays were chosen by Professor Jay Garcia. The Brio team sincerely wishes to thank them for their input and their support of the journal. Susan Protheroe was also absolutely invaluable in bringing the issue to publication and it just wouldn't have been possible without her so we wish to give her our immense gratitude. The prize winners are as follows: poetry – Mollyhall Seeley; prose – Marina Perezagua; critical essay – Erin Whitney; and visual art – Paul Anagostopoulos. Here are a few selections from our Fall ‘12 edition!

A Poem from a larger collection entitled “Mundane Saints Society” by Mollyhall Seeley, winner of best poem.

oh, my darling (saint casimir of youth)

Saint Casimir wears boots that cut off at the ankle. His feet are always wet with snow after he goes hunting, but he likes the way the buckle wraps around the heel. I look at his boots a lot because I am afraid to look too long at his face, at the way his dark hair curls over his head and his eyes go dark at sunset. He always calls on Fridays wanting to go out, but we end up sitting on the roof of my house instead. He plays the ukulele to make me smile, and when that doesn’t work he traps a lock of my hair between his thumb and forefinger and says, Don’t make me do it. I think he means that he’ll tug hard enough to hurt, but I don’t know, because I always smile. His mouth looks forever red, forever just-kissed. He lies back with his leg lined up against mine from the knee to the hip and points at the stars, This one is called, he says, and that one is--. Then he closes his eyes and I think he wants to sleep, but instead Best visual art piece, San Min- The Wyrm by Michael Brown he pulls a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and lights one up. I iato Al Monte by Paul Anagnos- hate these things, he says, sounding old, and then barks out a laugh: topoulos No I don’t, that’s a lie, I love them, I love the way the smoke burns your throat as you swallow it. I say, Yeah. I say, I’m a little bit in love with you. He shrugs out his bright red coat and fastens it to my shoulders, even though it’s summer and I’m not cold. I shake it off and he looks at me with a face that says now do you see? I don’t, I say, and want to put the errant strand of dark hair in my mouth. He plucks out a tune on the ukulele that sounds like O My Darling, Clementine. Lost and gone forever, he muses. That’s the secret. I ask, the secret to what? And he says, wear the jacket.

He tugs on my hair and moves too quickly for me to be able to grab his hand. You know, they invoke me against the plague, he tells me thoughtfully as I zip the jacket up. Which plague? I ask, struggling with the buttons on the bottom. Saint Casimir spreads his arms out like he’s waiting for all the stars to fall into them and he says, who the fuck knows, nobody ever told me. Cover Art, Zodiac Attack by ShinYeon Moon Page 7

Minstrel Shows and Fanagalo cont...

“coon shouter” voice flowed historical artifact,” Place noted was the unexpected resonance into the images of coon song when asked about her perfor- of the song in the present that It was not clear at the time of lyric sheets and vice versa, cre- mance, insofar as the ventrilo- animated his piece. The re- publication if Place and Sanders ating an environment of fleeting quism and appropriation of markably catchy refrain from will reprise the double bill in yet incessant referents. minstrelsy derive from racial the song – “Fanagalo, Fanagalo/ New York soon or else take it Stretching into the twentieth conflicts that have arguably A Zulu boy will understand/ on the road. Either way, future century, blackface minstrelsy prompted all of the products of Fanagalo, Fanagalo/ A magic performances by Place and entered American life by way American culture that may be word from Zululand” – is slow- Sanders are not to be missed. of countless “coon songs” and said to be distinctive and genu- ly read and reread and made the sheet music purchased to the object of a reinterpreta- inely “indigenous.” Jay Garcia is Assistant Professor of Com- play them. The sheet music, as tion. Sanders means for his parative Literature. He received his Ph.D. Place pointed out, were them- Place was adamant that her listeners to dwell on the iro- in American Studies from Yale University in 2004 and he teaches courses on trans- selves complex visual artifacts performance had nothing to do nies of “Fanagalo” as pidgin that often included a raced and invented by whites. Translating nationalism in African American letters, with exculpation or condemna- comparative approaches to the study of caricatured body on the cover tion. Her main interest was “Fanagalo” as “like this” or “do American literature, and the intellectual and another body, often that of thinking about the minstrel like this,” directives given by history of American Studies and cultural the white female coon shouter, tradition as an “expression of whites, Sanders’s performance studies. on the insert. Place as coon white desire” in which white draws attention to the odd shouter enacts that dynamic of performers projected all man- impotence of the directive re- the insert – of the doubled ner of desires and often betray- vealed through its continual body – and invites her audience ing a “wish to escape one’s repetition. Sanders’ perfor- to contemplate minstrelsy as own condition into this other mance, part of book project called “Learning Zulu: A Secret “Fanagalo, Fanagalo/ A Zulu boy will History of Language in South Africa,” emphasized the affec- understand/ Fanagalo, Fanagalo/ A tive dimensions of the song and the complicated ways that it magic word from Zululand” reveals “Fanagalo” to be a “magic word” indeed. In other repeated instances of “race and realm.” The closing and memo- parts of the song – for in- mimicry.” rable line from Place’s perfor- stance, “Jim, feeda lo baby/ Jim, mance – “I’ll not dance Jim feeda lo baby/ Missis hamba Place’s performance was in Crow unless you hit me with a play lo golf” – the magic of large measure inspired by dollar” – evoked in a haunting “Fanagalo” is seamlessly at- Thomas Rice, a pivotal figure in way the commodification of tached to the everydayness of the history of minstrel perfor- “race” always already a part of domestic chores and the re- mance. A white entertainer, the minstrel tradition. The production of labor discipline. Rice became nationally and question posed by Place’s per- In doing research on language internationally known for his formance, especially as it drew in South Africa, Sanders found “Jim Crow” performances, to a close, was how “race” that the song often came up in which drew on African Ameri- continues to serve relations of people’s memories of the can vernacular speech and pop- commodification and various 1950s. Not altogether unlike ular culture. “Daddy Rice,” as performative exchanges. Here, the songs in Place’s perfor- he was known, helped to make once more, the version of min- mance, “Fanagalo” in Sanders’ the blackface minstrelsy shows strelsy Place invoked was not view enters the present not a feature of the popular cultur- marked by historical distance merely as an historical docu- al landscape, especially in the but rather by uncanny curren- ment but as a peculiar presence that unpredictably places 1830s. For Place, among the cy. most intriguing dimensions of pidgin in the mouths of the politically and socially dominant the “race and mimicry” nexus The same was true of of minstrelsy is that the tradi- group, and in so doing creates “Fanagalo: A Golden Oldie,” a space from which to investi- tion, while indebted to key for although Mark Sanders lo- figures such as Rice, cannot be gate anew the story of language J.D Bold’s Fanagalo phrase book, cated a version of the song in twentieth century South relegated to the historical past. performed by the Woody published in 1958. Africa. “I don’t look at this as a dead Woodpeckers in the 1950s, it Page 8 From Graduate Student Awards for 2012-2013 ...

Sage Anderson: fellow in the Doctoral Program (Graduiertenkolleg) Lebensformen und Lebenswissen, directed jointly by the Uni- versität Potsdam and the Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder). Nienke Boer: 2012 GSAS Robert Holmes Travel/Research Award for African Scholarship Brian Droitcour: 2012 GSAS summer predoctoral fellowship Brian Droitcour & Ceci Moss: Humanities Initiative Grant-in-Aid in support of event series “Program: Media & Literature” Bilal Hashmi: 2013 Anais Nin Fellowship Daniel Howell: Summer 2012 FLAS Fellowship Lucy Ives: 2013 Penfield Fellowship Anastasiya Osipova: 2013 Deans Dissertation Fellowship Katharina Piechocki: A special congratulations to Katharina who has accepted a position as an Assistant Professor of Compara- tive Literature at Harvard University. We wish her all the very best! Erica Weitzman: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/Volkswagen Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship in the Humanities at the Univer- sität Konstanz, Graduiertenkolleg "Das Reale in der Kultur der Moderne" for 2012-2013.

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Alumni News

Dror Abend-David (PhD 2001) is now a lecturer with the department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Florida. He recently signed a contract with Continuum to edit a collection under the title, Media and Translation: An Interdisciplinary Approach, to come out in 2013. He published recent articles in Forum: Interna- tional Journal of Interpretation and Translation and Prooftexts: A Journal of Jewish Literary History. Abend-David has also published book chapters in Advertising and Reality: A Global Look on Life in Commercials and Reality Television: Merging the Global and the Local. Lori Cole (PhD 2012) currently works at the Mandel Center at Brandeis University as a Charlotte Zysman Post- doctoral Fellow in the Humanities and Lecturer in Fine Arts. David Georgi (PhD 2008) has a new translation of the poems of Francois Villion, which was published by North- western University Press. The dual-language edition, titled Poems, contains a newly-revised text of Villon’s work, reflecting the latest scholarship. Robert McKee Irwin (PhD 1999) is the Principal Investigator of the research group, “Powerful Stories,” which has launched a community based digital storytelling project, working with sexually heterodox farm workers from California’s Central Valley. Irwin is conducting the project in collaboration with California Rural Legal Assistance and with funding from CalHumanities and the UC’s California Studies Consortium. Edgar (Ned) Jackson wrote the libretto for an opera called “Big Jim and the Small-Time Investors,” with music by Eric Salzman. The opera was presented in a very successful workshop production by the Center for Contem- porary Opera at the Flea Theater in New York City. In addition, the monkey stories he wrote, and his wife illus- trated, continue to be presented and sold in a variety of situations, including auctions. Brian Michael Norton (PhD 2006) is an Assistant Professor of English, Comparative Literature and Linguistics at California State University, Fullerton. He just published a new book entitled Fiction and the Philosophy of Happi- ness: Ethical Inquiries in the Age of Enlightenment Mickey (Edward) Smith (PhD 1991) just completed his 20th year at Rowan University (NJ). After a 7 year ad- ministrative hiatus in which he founded the University's International Center (2004-2010), he has returned to faculty and is teaching German and French within Rowan's Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures. Over the last year and a half, after returning to faculty, he has built up the German program into one of the most en- rolled programs at Rowan. Jason Weiss (PhD 1998) published an essay, which the Hammer Museum will include in the catalog to a retro- spective on Los Angeles artist Llyn Foulkes this spring. Also, his translation of the Argentine writer Silvina Ocampo’s selected poems will be published in a new poetry series by the New York Review of Books in the spring of 2014. Erica Suzanne Weitzman (PhD 2012) received two postdoctoral scholarships, one from the Volkswagen Foundation and another from the Transatlantic Cooperation Network. Her dissertation on comic irony in the

work of Robert Walser has been accepted for publication by Northwestern University Press.

Dear Comp Lit Alumni—

LET’S KEEP IN TOUCH! If you have news through the year or change your e-mail address, please let us know. Email Jane Kelly at [email protected] with your updates. And, so you can keep an eye on what’s happening here, don’t forget to check our Comp Lit web site (www.complit.as.nyu.edu) for the latest in department news and events. If you’re local or in town and see an event that interests you, please join us! Once a Complitter, Always a Complitter! Wishing you the Very Best!

DEPARTMENT OF COMPARATIVE LITERATURE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 13-19 University Place, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10003

Website : www.complit.as.nyu.edu