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Comp Lit News Department of Comparative Literature Spring 2009

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Comp Lit News Department of Comparative Literature Spring 2009 New York University Comp Lit News Department of Comparative Literature Spring 2009 The Comparative Literature Colloquium: Year Two by Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra Now in it second year, the student-organized department Colloquium has continued to develop, attracting participation from students and faculty in Comparative Literature as well as other departments in the humanities. Conceived in the fall of 2007 as a forum that would provide graduate stu- dents and faculty with an op- portunity to present their work- in-progress and generate con- versation in what is often a cen- trifugal community, the Collo- quium has increased the variety of events and expanded into Michiel Bot fields questions on his dissertation project: “Right to Offend.” collaborations with other de- “Conscience, Rights, and the during her year of sabbatical. the Colloquium included two partments and colloquia. Its aim Delirium of Democracy.” The It was the first of many occa- inter-departmental collabora- continues to be to nurture the paper, focusing on the con- sions in which participants tions. The first was a presen- intellectual life of the depart- cept of the right to con- chose to present unfinished tation by Paul North ment. science that underlies claims work, which often engen- (Assistant Professor/ Faculty The 2008-2009 Comparative of religious freedom in the dered productive discussion Fellow) from the German Literature Colloquium began American imaginary, is part of in the question and answer department, titled "The Ideal with a presentation by Prof. one of the projects Prof. Rut- sessions. of the Problem: Walter tenburg has been working on During the fall semester, Nancy Ruttenburg, titled (COLLOQUIUM, continued on pg. 8) Inside this issue: Message from our New Chair: Jacques Lezra Documenta Brazil 2 incompetence… I’m not ments—Middle Eastern and there yet, I think: the odd Islamic Studies, Slavic, Span- CL & Musicology 2 world of departmental ad- ish and Portuguese— New Faculty Books 3 ministration still intrigues and multiplied, and became horrifies in pleasant ways; my firmer. We remain, through Joburg Comes to NY 4 incompetencies haven’t yet this expansion and cross- Our New Admin. Aide 4 proven catastrophic. pollination, a faculty commit- Angela Leroux-Lindsey The Department of Com- ted to a view of Comparative parative Literature started off Literature as a field that must Faculty Spotlight: 5 this year in very good shape. be at once attentive to the Avital Ronell Under Nancy Ruttenburg’s increasing sweep of global Alumni News 6 confident Chair-ship the fac- cultures, and committed to ulty grew in number; graduate the intensive, close scrutiny of Grad Student Conference: 7 applications to the program specific works in quite par- At a certain point “being a increased; and the number ticular contexts. Our classes, new chair” shades from genu- “Secrets” 7 and range of course-offerings undergraduate as well as ine experience into a tech- expanded. The contacts be- graduate, reflect and take Grad Student Awards, Re- 9 nique, rhetorical or psycho- tween the Department of pleasure from the tricky dance cent Dissertations, and logical, for excusing one’s Comparative Literature and this double attention requires: ACLA ignorance, ham-fistedness, fellow-traveling depart- (NEW CHAIR, continued on pg. 3) Page 2 Documenta Brazil 2008 By Micaela Kramer & Fernando Pérez juxtaposes women giving place without the support of testimony with actors por- the Comparative Literature traying this same testimony, Department, the King Juan invites viewers to think about Carlos Center, which agreed notions of authorship as well to host the festival, as well as as the porosity of the numerous other NYU depart- boundaries between fiction ments and programs, includ- and reality. These and numer- ing the Coordinating Council ous other films, which were for Music, which gave us our the catalyst and inspiration first grant and thereby en- for “Documenta Brazil: sured that music would play a Rhythms of Brasilidade,” significant role in the festival. incite one to marvel at the In effect, the festival opened human capacity for invention, with a concert of live choro, Local musicians filled opening night with Brazilian choro. something we too often take and ended with a perform- for granted. ance-lecture by distinguished At a time when Brazilian aesthetic freedom that en- Documenta Brazil took professor and composer José literature and feature films seem dows it with a highly attrac- place at NYU’s King Juan Miguel Wisnik, who came to be overwhelmed by a reality tive playfulness, and renders Carlos Center from Novem- from São Paulo for the event, of violence that burdens them it endlessly provocative in the ber 13 to 18, 2008, and was and who was introduced by with the responsibility of faith- way in which it reveals the the first film festival dedi- Professor John Hamilton. No fully portraying the “real,” constructed nature of all nar- cated exclusively to Brazilian better note on which to end documentaries are, strangely rative. documentary film in New the six-day festival, whose enough, appearing as a site of Films such as Paulo Sacra- York. We hope that it will not rhythms—if gauged by the respite from reality. In fact, it mento’s The Prisoner of the Iron be the last. Conceived as a enthusiasm of the attendees seems to be precisely because it Bars--presented as a collective project three years ago, it and of the press coverage— is a genre already steeped in the portrait of the prison Ca- took us a year and a half to struck a vital chord in this “real” that the Brazilian docu- randiru--or Eduardo put it together and to gather most cosmopolitan of univer- funds. It could not have taken mentary film is acquiring an Coutinho’s Jogo de Cena, which (DOCUMENTA, continued on pg. 8) CL & Musicology On February 28th, 2009, Lezra, as well as Mary Ann ological and linguistic prob- by Daniel Hoffman-Schwartz Silver Center 220 was filled to Smart (Music, UC-Berkeley) lem of Rossini’s “musical capacity for a day-long event, and Branden Joseph (Art nonsense” in the context of the first installment of the new History, Columbia). During the intensification and accel- “Music, Language, Thought” the day’s first session Profes- eration of experience in mod- series organized jointly by sor Hamilton delivered a pa- ernity. Professor Lezra graduate students in the depart- per entitled, “The Rape of kicked off the afternoon ses- ments of Music and Compara- Euterpe: Music, Philology, sion with “The Devil’s Inter- tive Literature. The series and Misology in the Work of val,” a labyrinthine working grows out of an ongoing infor- Nietzsche,” a revisionary through of the relation be- mal conversation between reading of the complex inter- tween the music- graduate students and faculty in twinement of Nietzsche’s compositional issue of the the two departments over the musical, philological, and tritone and the philosophical last several years, revolving philosophical writings. Pro- concept of history in T.W. around questions of critical aes- fessor Hamilton’s paper was Adorno and his readers. Pro- thetic theory and the politics of followed in the morning ses- fessor Joseph closed the af- the sensible. The event fea- sion by Professor Smart’s ternoon session and the con- tured four speakers: our own “Rossini and Nonsense,” a ference as a whole with John Hamilton and Jacques rigorous analysis of the semi- “Biomusic,” a historical CL & Musicology, continued on pg. 7 Page 3 (NEW CHAIR, continued from pg.1) Sophomore Essay in Com- graduate students. Three would this be without the we cover literatures and cultures parative Literature, open to collaborative conferences/ obligatory reference to these? from the Caribbean to South non-concentrators and colloquia have been inaugu- Some are firmly material: Africa, the Indian sub- awarded based on faculty rated: the Arabic literature finding ways of increasing the continent, Japan and China, in nominations; and a prize for colloquium (with the Depart- funding for graduate students, periods ranging from antiquity the Best Undergraduate Essay ment of Middle Eastern and increasing the number of to yesterday; and we insist that in Comparative Literature. Islamic Studies); a collabora- undergraduate majors, hiring our students, graduate as well as (Again, names welcome!) At tive project with the Depart- and retaining faculty in areas undergraduate, be able to attend the graduate level, we have ment of Music (the inaugural where through retirements or to the nuance, particular style, continued the highly success- event, a two-part joint confer- for other reasons we are specific histories and implica- ful Graduate Colloquium, at ence on "Music, Language, short—areas where faculty tions of the works they read which our students and fac- Thought," was an extraordi- may have moved to other comparatively. ulty present current work for nary success); and a continu- institutions, or new areas of Since September, and de- discussion over wine and ing venture with the Russian study coming into existence spite the increasingly unnerving cheese, as well as the Com- & Slavic Studies Department, before our eyes. The trickiest economic news, we have been parative Literature Graduate which this year will result in a and most exciting, though, able to expand greatly the De- Student Conference, this year small conference on the topic will be to continue to imagine partment’s activities, both inter- devoted to the subject of of "Secrets," to be held in what Comparative Literature nal and jointly-devised. Work- "Waiting Time." This year May. In addition, the Depart- is, can be, or ought to be in a ing with the Dean’s office, we again we will be sending three ment has greatly expanded world at once so drastically have secured funding for two graduate students to the NYU the funding available for new, and so utterly embedded new Senior Thesis Prizes for Summer Research Institute in graduate student travel to in textual traditions.
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