Department of Comparative Literature University

Intersections Spring 2012

Lucretius and Modernity Conference by Liza Blake Jacques Lezra began the new light on Sir Isaac Newton’s conference by musing on the discussion of the Lucretian tricky nature of the “and” link- “swerve” in his scientific ing “Lucretius and Modernity.” thought. Papers such as Phil Mitsis’s The influence of the Lu- “How Modern is the Question cretian tradition on philosophi- of the Freedom of the Will?” cal modernity was another and Joseph Farrell’s “Lucretius pressing topic for many speak- and the Symptomology of Mod- ers. In the opening keynote, ernism” provocatively took up “Lucretius and the Speculative the question of what was at Sciences of Origins”, Catherine stake in attempting to consider Wilson reconsidered Lucretius Conference organizer Jacques Lucretius as modern. Keynote speaker Catherine Wilson and the Epicurean tradition to Lezra on “The Nature of Marx’s from the University of Aberdeen Other papers considered posit a new way of considering Things” the connections between Lu- the narrative we tell about On October 26-28, 2011, ties Initiative, the Gallatin cretius and modern scientific Kant’s philosophical career and speakers from around the School of Individualized Study, practices. David Konstan ar- his transition from anthropol- world and from all disciplines the Medieval and Renaissance gued that Lucretius’s notions of ogy to critical philosophy. Katja converged on the Lucretius Center, Poetics and Theory, infinity actually correspond to Vogt considered Lucretius’s and Modernity Conference, the Classics, English, French, and modern scientific thought in his argument for the “truth” of Annual Ranieri Colloquium on Philosophy, Lucretius and Mod- “Lucretius the Physicist and sense perception from a mod- Ancient Studies. Co-sponsored ernity featured three days of Modern Science” and Jerry ern analytical standpoint in her Passannante’s paper “Newton’s principally by the Department talks about the Roman poet “All Sense Perceptions Are of Comparative Literature and Lucretius and his relationship, Swerve” reviewed the seven- True: Epicurean responses to the Center for Ancient Studies, however problematic or de- teenth century reception of Skepticism and Relativism.” Epicureanism in order to cast and additionally by the Humani- bated, to modernity. (Lucretius cont. page 2)

Poetics and Theory: Anachronic Shakespeare and Flirtations by Daniel Hoffman-Schwartz Housed within the Depart- Co-directed by Anselm annual conference usually tied Inside the Issue: ment since the 2010-2011 aca- Haverkamp of the English de- to the theme of one of the Faculty Highlight: Kristin Ross 3 demic year, the Poetics and partment and our own Jacques core courses; a monthly read- Recent Grad Student Placement 3 Theory Certificate Program Lezra with generous help from ing group. reached new heights of inten- Martin Harries (also of English), (P&T cont. page 2) Mellon Translation Seminar 4 sity and activity in 2011-2012, the Poetics and Theory Pro- culminating in a veritable theo- gram takes an approach to the- Undergraduate News 4 retical frenzy in this year’s ory that is both historical and Alumnus Marc Caplan spring term, encompassing the transdisciplinary, aiming at once major international conference to work through the distinctly On Loving Academia 5 Anachronic Shakespeare, a work- literary prehistory of contem- Recent Grad Student Awards 6 shop entitled Flirtations: Rhetoric porary theory in rhetoric and and Aesthetics This Side of Seduc- aesthetics and to instigate en- Alumni News 7 tion, as well as a slew of other counters between literary stud- lectures and seminars (some co ies and other theoretically ori- New Faculty: Jay Garcia 8 -sponsored by Comp Lit itself) ented disciplines. The Program Update From the Comparatorium 8 from speakers such as Shira has three components: the New Faculty: Emanuela Bianchi 9 Wolosky, Dirk Quadflieg, actual certificate program, in- Kiarina Kordela, and Katrin volving both core and cross- Kordela & Spivak 9 Trüstedt. listed courses; events including lectures, workshops, and an Page 2 (Lucretius cont from page 1) “From Clinamen to Conatus: logued references to Lucretius litical ideal of “pleasure” over Yves-Charles Zarka in his “The Deleuze, Lucretius, Spinoza” in early modern poems based the dominant ideal of Aleatory: Lucretius and Some filtering his reading through on the seven days of creation “happiness” based on Rous- Modern Authors” posited Lu- Deleuze’s interpretation of described in Genesis in his seau’s thought. cretius as the father of an alea- Spinoza. Jacques Lezra’s “On “Lucretius and Renaissance Although this article has the Nature of Marx’s Things” Hexemeral Epic.” Anne Deneys tory tradition of philosophy divided the papers schemati- other than that sketched by examined a passing reference -Tunney in her “Lucretius and th cally in an attempt to show the Louis Althusser in his late to Lucretius in one of Marx’s French Libertinism in the 18 range of topics and approaches work. Other conference speak- early notebooks, and Alain Century” described an erotic covered at the conference, Gigandet analyzed the form novel that featured, among ers focused on the influence of each paper, like Lucretius’s and content of Leo Strauss’ other characters, talking bijou Lucretius on specific modern poem, swerved across discipli- philosophers. Both Brooke analysis of Lucretius in his (you had to be there to know nary boundaries as well. A con- Holmes and Warren Montag “’Notes on Leo Strauss’ ‘Notes what that stands for). Thomas ference volume is in the works, offered readings of Deleuze’s on Lucretius.’” Kavagnagh’s “Epicureanism so the papers presented may Across the Revolution” posited essay on Lucretian naturalism, Finally, another set of pa- yet avoid the fall straight into with Holmes’s “The Evolution the Epicurean tradition as the pers tracked Lucretius into still the void of oblivion. of Lucretius” focusing on the more genres of writing and philosophical backbone of a book on gastronomy, and read Liza Blake is a fifth-year graduate student in revisions Deleuze made to the thought. Philip Hardie cata- English, writing a dissertation on early modern essay over time, and Montag’s it as offering an alternative po- literary physics.

‘Hamlet theories’ of Goethe’s Natalie Nagel, and Lauren Shi- Wilhelm and Joyce’s Stephen zuko Stone from German. Pa- (Plock), and of Walter Benja- pers addressed flirtation in min and Carl Schmitt (Weber). Simmel as a gestural mode to The conference was organized be distinguished from the ex- by Elizabeth Bonapfel (English), plicit discursivity of love Martin Harries (English), (Fleming), a practice of mimetic Anselm Haverkamp, and Daniel self-expenditure theorized by Hoffman-Schwartz. sssssssss Freud and Caillois (Hamilton), sssssFlirtations (March 3rd, the movement from rhetoric 2012), sponsored by a grant to poetry in ancient epideictic from the NYU Humanities Ini- oratory (Campe), an aesthetics Visiting Professor Barbara Vinken, Jacques Lezra, Natalie Nagel, and Erica tiative, explored the somewhat of perception oriented towards Weitzman presenting at Flirtations undertheorized terrain of flirta- the “sweets of life” in Thomas tion, understood as a phe- Mann’s Felix Krull (Strowick), a nomenon distinct from that of form of virtual bestiality requir- (P&T cont. from page 1) Northwestern University and a seduction. Flirtations gathered ing animal mediation in Freud’s Inspired loosely by Alex- longtime friend of both Comp six prominent scholars, from reading of Jensen’s Gradiva ander Nagel (NYU, IFA) and Lit and Poetics and Theory, the NYU and beyond, to each give (Lezra), a threat to republican Christopher Wood’s recent conference included lectures a short talk on the topic. virtue and a deconstruction of Anachronic Renaissance (Zone by John Archer (English, NYU), Speakers included old friends masculine subjectivity (Vinken). Books, 2010) as well as Anselm Stuart Elden (Geography, Dur- John Hamilton (now of Har- Daniel Hoffman-Schwartz, Bar- Haverkamp’s recent Poetics ham), Vike Plock (English, Exe- vard) and Paul Fleming (now of bara Natalie Nagel, and Lauren and Theory seminar on Shake- ter), Jacques Lezra, Anselm Cornell), Barbara Vinken Shizuko Stone conceptualized speare and Philosophy, the Haverkamp, and Julia Lupton (Visiting Professor of German and organized the workshop. Anachronic Shakespeare Confer- (English, Irvine). These treat- at NYU), Rüdiger Campe sssssFuture plans include col- ence (February 24th and 25th, ments of Shakespearean (German, Yale), Elisabeth laboration with the Interna- 2012) brought together major anachrony touched as well Strowick (German, Johns Hop- tional Center for Critical The- scholars from a range of disci- upon the animal (Archer) and kins), and Jacques Lezra. In ory, a program run by Xudong plines in order to think through life as such (Haverkamp) in the keeping with the workshop Zhang as a partnership be- Shakespeare’s challenge to con- Sonnets; the linguistic machin- format, each presentation was tween Peking University, NYU, ventionally linear concepts of ery of Midsummer Night’s followed by a brief response East China Normal University, history and the consequences Dream and Schlegel’s transla- from a graduate student or and the University of Tokyo. of this challenge for the hu- tion thereof (Lezra); the ter- postdoc from NYU, including Details about Poetics and The- manities today. Featuring a rors of the earth in King Lear Sage Anderson, Daniel Hoff- ory can be found online at: keynote address by Samuel (Elden) and the textiled archi- man-Schwartz, and Erica poeticsandtheory.wordpress.com. Weber, Avalon Foundation tectural softscapes of Macbeth Weitzman from Comp Lit, as Daniel Hoffman-Schwartz will be defending his Professor of Humanities at and its various stagings well as Arne Höcker, Barbara dissertation this summer; it examines Burke and (Lupton); the respective the problem of political romanticism. Page 3 Faculty Highlight: Kristin Ross Linking Revolutions by Lauren Bird describes her determination to ered in the past. Ross says that study France’s past, which by viewing it “through the many were actively trying to frame and interests of the pre- erase, as “going against the sent” certain contemporary grain.” However, examining the themes like internationalism Paris Commune in the wake of and the importance of educa- May ’68 seemed to be the tion become visible in the natural thing to do for Ross, Commune that would not have who described the two events been visible before. as “bookends to the French Viewing the past through Empire.” Not only did they the present proves that history roughly mark the beginning and never stops being relevant. I end of revolution in France, but stop myself at quipping that their similarities create what history repeats itself, but per- Ross refers to as an “imperial haps the past can indicate pat- frame.” The Commune fasci- terns for the future because Revolution has been a word her interest in French studies, nated and inspired the people Prof. Ross grins knowingly as on everyone’s tongue the past though it would be several surrounding the May ’68 move- she tells me, “I think we’ll see year as the Occupy movement years before she would get the ment with its analogous ideals. swept the and opportunity to travel to They were able to see the an interesting spring.” Lauren Bird is a senior majoring in Compara- revolutions sparked across the France. Commune through a different tive Literature. She hopes to one day work the globe. For Professor Kristin When Ross began graduate lens than before because of in new media and content creation. Ross, these movements are, school in 1976, she says, “it their present comparable ex- once again, providing a new perience. As Prof. Ross ex- was a strange time to go into lens through which to view plains, “moments in the past French studies.” Having now revolutions of the past. visited France and been in- can be completely hidden or of Kristin Ross started her spired to study the Paris Com- no interest until certain trans- university career at the Univer- mune, her pursuits ran con- versals exist so that people become connected to them in sity of California: Santa Cruz, trary to the counterrevolution- some way.” an environment which re- ary climate of the time. flected the most idyllic side of At this time, the revolution- In light of the uprisings and the nineteen seventies. There Occupy movement of 2011, ary fervor, underlined by the were no grades, no tuition and this phenomenon is happening protests of May 1968, had meals were made from stu- given way to the de- again. The Commune can once Another revolution? dent-run gardens. Here, Ross Marxification of France. Ross more be relevant in a light that tells me, she first discovered would not have been consid-

Recent Graduate Student Placement Dror Abend-David: lecturer at the Dept. of Languages, Literatures and Cultures at the University of Florida Sage Anderson: fellow in the Doctoral Program (Graduiertenkolleg) Lebensformen und Lebenswissen, directed jointly by the Universität Potsdam and the Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder) Magali Armillas-Tiseyra: Assistant Professor of World Literature in the English Department at the University of Mississippi Ipek Celik: a one-year, renewable position in the Humanities at Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey Robyn Creswell: Assistant Professor in Comp Lit at Brown University Xiang He (Ellen): Assistant Professor of Chinese Literature and Culture, Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at University of New Mexico Daniel Hoffman-Schwartz: Humanities Instructor at Bogazici University in Istanbul Micaela Kramer: Assistant Professor in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies at Rutgers (Newark) Aaron Love: English department, Houston Community College Erica Weitzman: post-doc at the Graduiertenkolleg “Das Reale in der Jultur der Moderne,” Konstanz University Pu Wang: Assistant Professor in Chinese Literature, Language, and Culture at Brandeis University Page 4

Mellon Dissertation Seminar “The Problem of Translation” by Katharina Piechocki While I was a student at was the focus of the Mellon texts on translation theory new academic discipline and as Vienna University, the Dissertation Seminar titled (Benjamin, Derrida, and We- we all enter the job market. “Übersetzer- und Dolmetschin- “The Problem of Translation,” ber) as well as texts that dis- The strength of the seminar stitut” was translated into a organized by Professors Emily closed their impact on transla- was to raise our awareness “Zentrum für Translationswis- Apter and Jacques Lezra from tion studies only as the read- that with the word senschaft.” The translation of July 1st to August 1st 2011 at ings unfolded (Plato, Petrarch, “translation” we enter not only the institute’s name from the NYU’s Humanities Initiative. and Celan). The afternoon ses- a labyrinthine system of lan- German “Übersetzer” into the The topics and readings sions had two parts. In the first guages but also the untranslat- Latin (and at the same time of the seminar were divided half, seminar participants dis- able machine of philosophical English) “Translation” signified into seven thematic sessions cussed and gave fruitful feed- indeterminacy, language poli- a major change in the approach and ranged from the question back on ongoing students’ pro- tics, and the Anglophone im- to the field of “Übersetzung- of veiling and unveiling in Plato, jects, while the second half of perium. Translation processes swissenschaft”: the much to the relationship between the the afternoon sessions (in the resist a transparent rendering broader term “Translation” analyst and the analysand in words of the syllabus) “exten- of words, notions, and con- opened up new spaces, not Freud, to the logic of linguistic ded discussions of the readings cepts; they are surprisingly only in Austria but across transformation in Wittgenstein. into seminars with guest speak- protean and interdisciplinary; Europe and the US, to redirect The seminar consisted of fif- ers,” who offered new per- and they upset and disrupt. The academic and institutional teen advanced doctoral stu- spectives on the topic. Guest Mellon Seminar on “The Prob- thinking about processes of dents, whose work—whether speakers included external lem of Translation” ultimately translation: from a simple and in the interdisciplinary field of scholars and translators such as showed that translation resists relatively unproblematic ren- translation studies within Com- Gayatri Spivak, Bruno Bosteels, both easy categorization and dering of words from one lan- parative Literature, in different Lydia Davis, and Peter Cole, as disciplinary institutionalization guage to another to the under- language departments, or in well as NYU professors Jane as “translation studies.” It re- standing of the complexities of related fields such as architec- Tylus, Mary Louise Pratt, and mains a “problem”—what translation as a daily practice ture—requires the daily use Richard Sieburth. translated back into the ancient and as philosophical thinking. and intimate knowledge of dif- Personally, the Mellon Greek verb “pro-ballein” actu- To trace the changes and ferent languages, from English Translation Seminar helped me ally quite accurately describes transformations that occur to Chinese, from French to not only to strengthen the the practice of translation itself: when words are exchanged, Urdu, from Italian to Gikuyu. theoretical framework of my a necessary trajectory of obsta- substituted, added, or excised, The seminar was divided into dissertation, but also to rethink cles and falls, of stumbling to think about the cognitive morning and afternoon ses- my own discipline, Compara- blocks and accidents that trip process as a translational proc- sions. The morning sessions tive Literature, in a new light us up and throw us forward. ess in its own right, and to re- were dedicated to close read- and timely manner: as transla- Katharina Piechocki is currently finishing her flect upon “untranslatables,” ing and discussion of canonical tion studies is being shaped as a dissertation on "Cartographic Humanism: Defining Early Modern Europe, 1450-1550." Comparative Literature Undergraduate Flight Plan With the encouragement Senior Honors Thesis Semi- treated us to a small miracle the hands of Comp Lit Under- and support of chair Jacques nar – Professor Vatulescu this year: For the first time in grads. The “Choice” this year Lezra and Director of Under- guided 9 seniors through this the four years of BRIO, they was renowned post-colonialist, graduate Studies Cristina Va- two-term, two-reader process published both a fall and spring literary critic and theorist tulescu, Undergrad involve- this year. With research topics edition. Kudos (!) to our mira- Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak ment in the department “took varying from adultery to United cle-working Undergrads Rox- who spoke on “Comparative off” 3 years ago -- and our Un- States Borders to South Park ana Soroudi, Nafeesa Da- Literature and the Subaltern” at dergrads are still flying high! and Aristophanes, these excep- woodbhoy, Coralie Harmache, her lecture in Silver Center on Energized and creative, they tional young scholars explored Emma Hohenstein, Megan My- April 5. organize singular scholarly ac- the many comparative crannies scofski, and Lauren Valenza. A good year for all. Congratu- tivities. Eager and curious, they of Comp Lit. The Comp Lit Undergrad lations and many thanks to our work directly with Comp Lit BRIO, the Comp Lit Literary Major’s Choice Lecture – high-flying Undergrads! faculty on research and aca- Journal – Soliciting submissions Nafeesa Dawoodbhoy stepped demic projects. Our Under- from as near as the NYU Ger- up for this, too, piloting the grads have now joined our man Department (on the other third year of this annual event. faculty and grads at the center side of the floor) and as far as The choice of a high profile of things. Their formula for Douroud University (Iran), speaker (Judith Butler in 2010, success? Department + Under- Editor-in-Chief Roxana Sour- Laurence Rickels in 2011) and grads = positive symbiosis. oudi and her editorial crew organization of the event are in Page 5

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Academia by Marc Caplan, PhD 2003 My first exposure to aca- ing enthusiastic letters of rec- ing the challenges of supervis- put it to me at the time, I was demic life outside of NYU in- ommendation from the people ing nine instructors and ap- welcome to continue directing spired one of the most valuable on your committee. proximately 350 students, I the global literature program, and enduring lessons I learned This lesson resonated with was also preparing for a tenure but any prospect of a tenure- from my advisors: toward the track position there would be end of my coursework for the postponed indefinitely. And I’d PhD I attended a graduate stu- probably have to share an of- dent conference at Stanford fice with the returning scholar. University. There I met and (“Are you going to finish that discussed my work with peers sandwich?”) So at the beginning from a variety of institutions of my second semester in Indi- for the first time, and several ana, four events occurred in students inquired about the approximately ten days: I inter- Comp Lit program at NYU. viewed for a tenure-track job; I “How big is your department?” learned that my wife, a gradu- was the question I received ate of the PhD program in Yid- most frequently. Comparing us dish at Columbia (you see, I with NYU departments such as married up!), was pregnant; I English or American Studies— found out that I would not my only frame of reference at receive the tenure-track posi- the time—I said that we were tion; and I received notice that rather small; the year I was I had been admitted to a post- admitted only about a dozen doctoral fellowship in Jewish students had begun with me. Studies—to which I had applied This usually prompted an excla- in a single evening, as an after- mation of bewilderment from thought to my otherwise ex- my interlocutor, who typically clusive focus on the now- came from a comp lit program, vanished position in Blooming- not a department, and who ton—at the University of Penn- was often one of only two or sylvania.ssssssssssssssssssssssss three students admitted in a Sssss In ten days, my life and given academic class. Marc and his daughter Zippy on a cotton candy day in Central Park my career detoured approxi- When I returned to New me once I finally defended my -track position in the depart- mately 180 degrees from the York I met with my disserta- dissertation, in August 2003, ment, calling for a specialist in trajectory I had begun pursuing tion director, to whom I con- and began making my way post-colonial African literature. with my PhD: instead of a com- fessed my confusion toward through the academic job mar- ssssssA funny thing happened parative literature scholar with the experience I had just en- ket. The first station on this then, or as one might express a focus on African literature dured, and my newfound un- journey brought me from New my relative confidence at the and a side-interest in Yiddish, I certainty over the wisdom of York to Indiana University, path I had chosen in Yiddish, had become, overnight, a Yid- having affiliated with what I where not coincidentally a Der mentsh trakht un Got lakht dish scholar with training in now feared was a Brob- number of professors with (“When man thinks, God comparative literature and a dingnagian institution. He re- whom I had studied had earned laughs”). The scholar whom I side-interest in African Studies. plied to my concerns with their PhD. Having at least en- had been recruited to replace During the year I spent at characteristic wisdom, explain- sured the distinctiveness of my as the department’s resident Penn, I learned a new academic ing that Walter Benjamin had aura by writing a dissertation Africanist had second thoughts geography, a new professional already confronted the prob- that compared the develop- about her decision to leave discourse, and a new hierarchy lem I was encountering; if the ment of modern prose genres Bloomington, and since she had of scholars as well as institu- work of art in an age of me- in 19th Century Yiddish and 20th not formally resigned her posi- tions to study and make con- chanical reproduction has lost Century African literatures, I tion there, but had only taken tact with. While making the its aura, how can we as schol- was now administering a global an indefinite leave (a strategy acquaintance of my newborn ars preserve our intellectual literature curriculum in the you might consider emulating daughter and deferring my fa- aura in an era of institutional Department of Comparative when the prospect develops in ther-in-law’s questions about anonymity? His answer was Literature at Bloomington, and your career) the university had how I would support my family, correspondingly elegant: “You training grad students—little essentially no choice but to I was at work most days and retain your aura by writing a younger than myself—in liter- return the position to her. As nights reading the collected great dissertation, and receiv- ary pedagogy. While confront- the Chair of the department sssss(Marc cont. on next page) Page 6 (Marc cont. from page 5) most lucrative to date, most of tive literature, although the some of which perhaps bear writings of the classic Yiddish our wages were consumed by term “comparative literature” repeating: (1) the absence of a authors Isaac Leib Peretz and the only grocery store within exists nowhere in the contem- tenure-track job does not Sholem Aleichem. And I was walking distance of our apart- porary Hopkins curriculum. My mean the absence of a future in cultivating a new aura. sssssssss ment: Whole Foods! Nonethe- undergraduate lecture courses academia; (2) our training as I pursued a number of pros- less, the experience reinforced tend to focus on general comparatists actually provides pects for the future during that both the scholarly commit- themes in modern Jewish cul- us with more than a single pro- year in Philadelphia, the most ments and the professional ture such as Zionism, the fessional resource for finding likely of which was a tempo- associations I had made at Holocaust, immigration to work; (3) a well-placed post- rary instructorship—at some Penn: all of the jobs I applied America, or Jewish Humor doc might actually be a better point in an undefined future to for that year directly engaged (perhaps the most popular un- career decision than a tenure- become a tenure-track posi- modern Jewish literature, and dergraduate course ever taught track job directly following tion—in Yiddish at the Johns the four conferences in which I in the German program at grad school; (4) be nice to eve- Hopkins University. Only a participated all provided me a Hopkins!). My graduate semi- ryone you meet at conferences year after Indiana, I was reluc- forum to discuss my work on nars typically focus on a theo- and always open your home to tant to accept another offer Yiddish modernism. Most sig- retical problem in modern lit- visiting scholars, because you framed as “come for the visit- nificantly, that visiting post at erature, such as “the subject- never know when or under ing position, stay for the tenure Johns Hopkins did indeed ripen object relation in experimental what circumstances your path -track one,” so I kept at the into a tenure-track position, so fiction,” “comedy, tragedy, and might cross theirs in the future; search. Serendipitously, my three years to the day after the space between,” or (5) all knowledge is useful; (6) wife was offered a renewable defending my dissertation I “peripheral modernism.” In all every experience en route to a lectureship teaching Yiddish arrived in Baltimore to begin of my courses, I make an effort permanent position provides language at Harvard, to which I the first permanent job I had to sell Yiddish to students another opportunity to culti- had applied for a second re- held since starting graduate “under the table,” but I also vate your aura. search fellowship in Jewish school 12 years before; two pursue the inextricable argu- Studies. Doubtless by complete years after becoming a parent, ments that Yiddish can only be coincidence, the same commit- eight years after getting mar- understood comparatively with tee that had awarded my wife ried, 17 years after graduating other literary traditions, while her position found it in their college, 21 years after drinking the inclusion of Yiddish in a limitless wisdom to grant my my first legal beer, I was finally global understanding of mod- fellowship as well, so for the an adult.ssssssssssssssssssssss ernism illuminates our under- fourth time in less than two At Hopkins, my career has standing of the global as well as years, we set out for a new come full circle in a sense: al- the modern. ssssssssss address and a new institutional though I am officially the Beyond the inescapable affiliation. ssssssssss “Yiddish guy” in the German irony that my theory of inter- At Harvard, my wife and I section of the Department of national modernism based on luxuriated in the irony that my German and Romance Lan- peripherality, diaspora, and research fellowship, for which guages, both the Yiddish cur- contingency has been articu- the duties consisted of attend- riculum specifically and the lated during a period of what ing a single (catered!) weekly Jewish Studies program in gen- one can only hope to be ex- seminar where fellows pre- eral are so new that I have yet ceptional personal dislocation sented their research, paid to teach a course exclusively and professional uncertainty, better than her teaching obliga- about Yiddish in the Yiddish my protracted experience on tions as a language preceptor; language. Instead, I have drawn the job market has impressed a Marc’s New Book From Stanford although that year remains our upon my training in compara- number of lessons on me, University Press

Recent Graduate Student Awards Magali Armillas-Tiseyra: Managing Editor of the journal e-misférica (bi-annual peer reviewed online journal) run by the Hemi- spheric Institute for Performance and Politics Michiel Bot: 2011-12 Penfield Fellowship Lori Cole: Andrew Sauter Fellowship Robyn Creswell: Cullman Center Fellowship at the NYPL, http://www.nypl.org/locations/tid/36/node/29210 Patrick Gallagher & Lori Cole: 2011 Anais Nin Memorial Fellowship Bilal Hashmi: Fall 2011, Visiting Graduate Student Fellow with the Global Research Institute at NYU London Micaela Kramer & Pu Wang: 2011-2012 Dean’s Dissertation Sonia Werner: 2012-2013 Dean’s Dissertation Page 7 Alumni News 2011-2012 Stan Benfell (PhD 1994) published The Biblical Dante (University of Toronto Press, 2011).

Marc Caplan (PhD 2003) published How Strange the Change: Language, Temporality, and Narrative Form in Peripheral Movements (Stanford University Press, 2011). Gabrielle Civil (PhD 2000) is a tenured associate professor of English, Women's Studies and Critical Studies of Race & Ethnicity at St. Catherine University in St. Paul, MN where she started in Fall 2000 after defending her dissertation in the Comparative Literature department earlier that spring. She is working on several projects, including her long- percolating manuscript "Swallow the Fish: Black Feminist Performance Art." In December 2011, she premiered her per- formance art work "Fugue," a meditation on the 2010 earthquake in , at the Five Miles Gallery in Brooklyn as part of ArtQuake through the Haiti Cultural Exchange. She recently returned from Cormier, Haiti where she worked for 10 days with Ayiti Resurrect--a grassroots collective dedicated to transforming trauma into healing post earthquake. In the small rural community, she co-facilitated a poetry, storytelling, performance workshop and helped translate a com- munity chakra meditation into Haitian Kreyol.

María del Pilar Blanco (PhD 2007) published Ghost-Watching American Modernity: Haunting, Landscape, and the Hemi- spheric Imagination (Fordham University Press, 2012).

Shari Huhndorf (PhD 1996) is now a Full Professor in Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley.

Rosamond S. King (PhD 2001) is currently completing a Woodrow Wilson Career Enhancement Fellowship. Last year she was part of The Distinguished Lectures in Caribbean Studies Series at Rutgers New Brunswick and the Key- note Speaker for the First Annual Caribbean Women Writers Conference at Medgar Evers College.

Susan Matthias (PhD 2006) was awarded the NYU-SCPS Teaching Excellence Award in February 2012. She has been on the faculty of NYU-SCPS's Humanities and Performing Arts division since 2007. Her specialty is classical lit- erature, and during the past few years she has been teaching a three-semester sequence of courses on ancient epic: the Iliad, the Odyssey, and the Aeneid.

Robert McKee Irwin (PhD 1999) is the Chair of the Graduate Group in Cultural Studies at University of California, Davis. He published, with coauthor Maricruz Castro Ricalde, El cine mexicano "se impone": mercados internacionales y pe- netración cultural en la época dorada (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México).

Fernando Perez (PhD 2009) is working at Universidad Alberto Hurtado, in Santiago, Chile, in the language, the lit- erature, and the art departments. He is also the director of the interdisciplinary MA in Image Studies.

Christopher Vitale (PhD 2007) is Assistant Professor of Media Studies at in Brooklyn, NY, where he teaches everything from film and media theory to literature to queer studies. His first book, Networkologies: A New Phi- losophy of Networks for a Hyperconnected Age, Vol 1: From Diagram to World, will be published by Zer0 books in Spring 2012. Segments of this work in progress have appeared in a series of articles in Speculations: The Journal of Speculative Realism, and along with mini-articles on many topics on his blog, Networkologies, at: networkologies.wordpress.com.

Jason Weiss (PhD 1998) has a forthcoming book entitled Always in Trouble: An Oral History of ESP-Disk’, the Most Outra- geous Record Label in America (Wesleyan, 2012). Additional work by Weiss can be found at: itinerariesofahumming- bird.com Page 8

New Faculty: Jay Garcia by Lauren Bird Garcia earned his bachelor’s the interdisciplinary nature of books that influenced him and degree in Michigan’s Program the field. This is something, which he in turn influenced. of American Culture and went Garcia points out, American Garcia tells me that he also on to earn his PhD in Ameri- Studies shares with Compara- hopes to pull from the archival can Studies from Yale. tive Literature. fffffffffff materials he has saved on Rich- At Yale, Garcia honed his Garcia says that in the past ard Wright from his time at research concentrations, be- few decades, scholars of Yale, complementing the coming intrigued by the origins American Literature have in- course with rare documents To Jay Garcia, the newest of American Studies itself as creasingly approached the like Wright’s unpublished drafts associate professor in the well as by the idea of analyzing study from a global context, and letters. The real bonus to Comparative Literature depart- not just the published works of which lends to additional cross the course, however, is living in ment, New York is, “the per- an author, but the multitude of over between the fields. What , walking the fect place to be an intellectual.” other texts from his or her life is even more compelling for streets that paved modern He praises New York not only that have been left behind and both disciplines, says Garcia, is American history, that wel- for its many museums and ar- preserved in archives. In this that we have a new period to comed immigrants from chives, but also for the way in pursuit to study not merely the look back on from our position around the world and where which “literature comes alive in “final form... but also all of the in the twenty-first century. “In Wright himself lived for many a way when you investigate it things around it,” Garcia spent a way, we’re invited to rethink years. After all, Garcia says with the city at your disposal.” many hours pouring over one the whole of twentieth century with a grin, Wright may be A native Brooklynite, Gar- of the most famous collections literature.” It adds another most often associated with cia is only now returning to housed at Yale, the Richard layer to the many through Chicago, but “a good deal of New York City, a place he Wright Papers. fffffffffffffffff which Garcia conducts his re- Native Son was written in says, “has a great deal of signifi- Richard Wright became a search, viewing as complete a Brooklyn.” cance” for his teaching and prominent feature of Garcia’s picture as possible while dis- research. It took leaving the dissertation and still embodies secting every strand. fffffffffffff city he grew up in, however, to much of Garcia’s thinking on For the spring, Garcia’s figure out what exactly that American Studies and litera- focus returns to Richard significance would be.ssssssssss ture. Living in and writing Wright as he teaches a Topics Garcia began his post- about the early to mid- in 20th Century Literature secondary education at the twentieth century, Wright’s course on Richard Wright’s , where work coincides with the emer- Books. He asks his students to he first delved into American gence of the American Studies look at Wright’s oeuvre from Studies. Drawn by its fusion of discipline. Having far-reaching an international perspective as Garcia’s new book published by Johns literature with history, anthro- social and political impacts, well as to analyze not just his Hopkins University Press pology and even sociology, Wright’s texts also encompass published works, but also the

Update from the Comparatorium by Sage Anderson The Comparative Literature (Departments of Comparative cession, rhyme and rhythm, ([email protected]), or Colloquium, organized by Literature and French), entitled past and future, événement et attend a planning meeting – or graduate students and active "The Poetics of Futurity: On avènement, dwelling on the Colloquium on the Colloquium since 2007, is in the middle of a Translating Nostradamus." translator's vexed confronta- – to be scheduled before the transitional season. Conceived Speaking at Deutsches Haus to tion with poetic surplus in lan- end of the spring semester. as a platform for faculty and a large crowd, Professor Sie- guage and meaning. Since Sep- Meanwhile, the department can students to present current burth discussed his new com- tember, the Colloquium has look forward to the return of projects, the colloquium has plete verse translation of the not reconvened; this hiatus has the colloquium in April, with a served as a valuable forum for Prophecies of Nostradamus, been temporary and circum- talk by Associate Professor Jay meeting and discussion over forthcoming this summer from stantial, but does indicate a Garcia, who joined the faculty the past five years. This year's Penguin Classics. He intro- need for increased participa- in Fall, 2011. The talk, season opened auspiciously on duced the portentous 16th- tion in the organizing commit- “Richard Wright’s Comic Cor- September 16th, with a talk by century magnum opus through tee. Those interested should rective,” will take place April Professor Richard Sieburth themes of conjunction and pro- email Sage Anderson ssssss 27th. Page 9

New Faculty: Emanuela Bianchi by Sarah Caldwell As Emanuela Bianchi sips word to describe her fascina- Although Bianchi is usually tea at Newsbar, she contem- tion with Derrida at the time, very pensive about her an- plates what she would say to but finally concedes that swers, when I ask her “Old Aristotle if he were sitting “obsessed” might be correct. Times Square or New Times across from her. “One part of She also describes this period Square?” she instantly answers me thinks I should ask him if he as a “lively” and “exciting” time “Old Times Square” and laughs. has any conception of the in the debates about feminist “If you read Samuel Delany’s amount of pain, suffering, and theory and gender identity. book Times Square Red, Times horror that his works would These debates lead her down Square Blue that will tell you all lead to in subsequent millen- the path to her dissertation you need to know about (the nia,” she says, but then clarifies topic. difference),” she says. “But on the other hand it’s not After Sussex, she came to For pleasure reads Bianchi really fair to hold him person- do her PhD at the New School, is a big Samuel Delany fan and ally accountable for the uses to intending to write about the also a fan of Sci-Fi in general. which his work has been put.” problem of teleology and de- She tried to be purely indulgent Although she’s never had construction. However, be- and read A Game of Thrones, tea with him, Bianchi has spent cause teleology was such an but she felt bogged down by Even though she will not a lot of time with Aristotle. Aristotelian idea, she started the strict patriarchal systems at teach a graduate class until Her dissertation The Feminine reading Aristotle. “The first next fall, she laughs when I ask play in the series and stopped. her if she has any advice for Symptom: Aleatory Matter in the thing that struck me about In terms of philosophical dissertation writers and says, Aristotelian Cosmos, which she (him) was how his ideas about books that Bianchi recom- “The only good dissertation is is currently working on pub- sex and gender were inter- mends, she doesn’t want to be twined with his physics and his a done dissertation.” lishing, gives a new reading of too constricting. “The book Aristotle’s natural philosophy, metaphysics and the teleology that is going to be really phi- As for working at New and works to show precisely at large,” says Bianchi. So that losophically important to a York University Bianchi is ex- how and why Aristotle’s phi- became her dissertation. person is going to be the book cited to be part of a literature department, because she feels losophical position has been so After working at Haverford they read in the moment that that it is “sort of a crucible for destructive especially with re- College as a Visiting Assistant they’re ready to read it,” she spect to gender. Professor and at The Univer- many kinds of theoretical ap- says. proaches.” She is also thrilled But Bianchi didn’t start out sity of North Carolina- Char- Currently, Bianchi is re- to work in such an expansive interested in Aristotle. In fact, lotte, she returns to New York searching kinship in ancient and open program. And of she got her undergraduate de- to teach in the Comparative literature. This spring she is course she loves working with gree from the University of Literature program here at also teaching a class called students. Sussex in a program called Hu- NYU. A lot has changed since “Classical Literature and Phi- she went to school here in the “Engaging with students is man Sciences, which dealt pri- losophy: Gender and Genre.” nineties. She still says she pre- just the highlight of my week,” marily with the nature versus She relishes in having the nurture question. She contin- fers New York to Chicago chance to (and the challenge she says warmly, taking a final ued at the University of Sussex style pizza. However, one of of) adding more literature and sip of her tea. her favorite staples, DOJO, just getting her MA in Philosophy. literary theory to accommo- There she grew intrigued read- isn’t as good as she remembers date comparative literature Sarah Caldwell is a senior majoring in Com- ing deconstructionists like Der- it. students. parative Literature. She hopes to write for rida. She can’t think of the right TV and also work in journalism. 2 Important Events: Grad and Undergrad 2 Important Speakers: Kordela and Spivak These 2 Important Events were held after our critical (!) Newsletter deadlines. Unfortunately, at this late date, we can’t afford them the text and space they deserve, but would like to briefly draw your attention to these successful events of our grads and undergrads. This year’s Graduate Student Conference “On Limits,” featured A. Kiarina Kordela of , whose talk addressed “Gaze, or, The Limit to Boundary.” Kudos to 1st year grad organizers! Post-colonialist Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak highlighted this year’s Under- graduate Major’s Choice Lecture with her talk titled “Comparative Litera- A. Kiarina Kordela ture and the Subaltern.” Kudos to UG organizer Nafeesa Dawoodbhoy! Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak DEPARTMENT OF COMPARATIVE LITERATURE 13-19 University Place, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10003

Website : www.complit.as.nyu.edu