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 students and faculty with an opportunity to present their work- in-progress and generate conversation 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. our undergraduate majors (the Beijing/Shanghai and Tokyo, conferences. Most impor- prizes are currently called, where they will participate in tantly perhaps, for the first Jacques Lezra is a specialist in rather flat-footedly, the “Senior a series of workshops and time this year the Department literary theory and in the literary, Thesis Prizes”: we welcome take part in an international will provide graduate Summer visual and philosophical culture of suggestions for excellent conference on “Modernism.” Support Fellowships of the early modern period. We are names!); a Senior Thesis Sum- In addition to these existing $1000, generally to be taken fortunate that Jacques joined both mer Research Grant of $1,250, programs, the Department in the summer between our department and the Depart- available to juniors in Compara- has opened a number of ex- graduate students’ first and ment of Spanish and Portuguese tive Literature and meant to tremely exciting collabora- second years of classes. last year. We are even more fortu- encourage them to start re- tions, and has been able to The Department faces nate that he became our Chair this searching their senior thesis expand significantly the re- challenges, of course—what year. project; a prize for the Best sources available to the sort of “new chair’s letter” New Faculty Books Hala Halim: Heads Ripe for Plucking ( English trans. of Mahmoud Al-Wardani's novel Awan al-Qitaf with a Translator’s afterword) (American University in Cairo Press, 2008) Avital Ronell: Addict: Fixions et narcotextes (Bayard, 2009) Kristin Ross: Mayo del 68 y sus vidas posteriores (Spanish translation of May 68 and its Afterlives) (Madrid: Acuarela Libros, 2008); Reis- sue of The Emergence of Social Space: Rimbaud and the Paris Commune (London and New York: Verso Radical Thinkers, 2008); trans. of Geneviève Sellier's La nouvelle vague; un cinema a la premiere personne masculine singuliere (Masculine Singular; French New Wave Cinema) (Durham: Duke University Press, 2008) Nancy Ruttenburg: Dostoevsky’s Democracy (Princeton University Press, 2008) Xudong Zhang: Duihua qimeng shidai (A Discourse on The Age of Enlightenment) (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2008); Qidi (Illuminations: Essays and Reflections by Walter Benjamin) (Beijing: Sanlian shudian, 2008); trans. of Postsocialism and Cultural Politics: China in the Last Decade of the Twentieth Century with introduction (Duke University Press, 2008) Page 4

Joburg Comes to New York by Mark Sanders soccer, all the while insisting brings to the critique of ur- not be tied to what he called on a rigorously comparative banism a number of consid- the “appearance of the so- perspective. North-South, erations, including the idea cial,” and thus whether crime and, increasingly, South- that a metropolis reveals itself occurs when the social does South collaborations make through its discontinuities, its not appear for the perpetra- WISER distinctive. provisionality, and its fugi- tor, he sparked a series of The remarks of professors tiveness. questions which led to much Nuttall and Mbembe showed Taking up this thought in stimulating discussion be- how much their new book, in his response to the two tween our visitors and faculty making the city a critical lens speakers, Arjun Appadurai, members and students in the for Africa—rather than, say, John Dewey Distinguished audience. the rural village—is a product Professor in the Social Sci- of the WISER ethos. ences at the New School, Mark Sanders, Professor of Com- Reviewing the ways in compared Johannesburg and parative Literature, specializes in which Johannesburg has been Mumbai, noting that Johan- African literatures, literary theory, discussed by scholars over the nesburg has always seemed to and interdisciplinary approaches to Johannesburg: The Elusive Metropolis. edited by Sarah Nuttall and years, Sarah Nuttall, who is him the more violent of the literature, law, and philosophy. Achille Mbembe. Associate Professor of Litera- two cities. When he asked ture and Cultural Studies at whether this violence might On December 1 a packed WISER, proposed a depar- Room 222 heard Sarah Nuttall ture from the paradigm of the and Achille Mbembe speak segregated city—which im- Our New Administrative Aide: about their new edited volume, plies a city of lack—toward Johannesburg: Elusive Metropolis, an account of subjectivity, or Angela Leroux-Lindsey which was published by Duke how the “citiness” of the city University Press late last year. is experienced by people who This January, Grace Starr finished her Masters in ESL and went on to An opportunity to link our live in it. Herein lies the elu- the Next Step in Her Life. We were very fortunate to find Angela metropolis with another great siveness of the metropolis. Leroux-Lindsey to replace Grace, and asked Angela to write something metropolis, their visit also gave Observing that our academic about herself for the Newsletter. us an occasion for affirming the formation has encouraged us friendship of Comparative Lit- to read for deep and hidden Angela on Angela erature with what is perhaps the meaning, which implies a leading center on the African vertical and even theological An (attempted) villanelle: continent for interdisciplinary model, Professor Nuttall research in the social sciences asked: What would a more Like you, I’m incomplete without a book and humanities—known to secular, horizontal reading Divine, this way to while away a day, most people by its evocative look like? And, when we in- Immerse and give the world a second look acronym: WISER, the Wits terpret the literature, art, and Or, at least, sublime a foundation shook. Institute for Social and Eco- popular culture of the pre- I write for joy and mind, hardly pay; nomic Research, at the Univer- sent, to what extent do we (But hope, someday, the world will see a book sity of the Witwatersrand in read apartheid back in? As worth just what pernicious bankers took) Johannesburg. Achille Mbembe, who is Relishing halls that teem with wit and wordplay. What makes WISER unique Research Professor in History Give me your forms, your grades, your woes—I’ll look is how scholars there, several of and Politics at Wits and Sen- In Albert, in SIS, in your folder or maybe that nook whose work is represented in ior Researcher at WISER, In my office, at the back, where binders go to stay Johannesburg: Elusive Metropolis followed in a more philoso- To nurse inferiority aside resplendent books. along with that of professors phical vein, familiar to readers At memos, I’m gifted, I know what departmental hook Nuttall and Mbembe, make it of his book On the Postcolony, Will earn that stamp approved, so don’t delay their business to engage in explaining how Johannesburg To bring that nagging issue for a look. theoretically sophisticated ways is a place where race destabi- And, me: I have a dog, I like to cook with key current South African lizes the mechanical relation- I paint sometimes, in science I foray. and African issues such as mi- ship in metropolitan theory Like you, I’m incomplete without a book grancy, xenophobia, HIV- between people, things, and And happy to be here, to work, to look. AIDS, criminality and impris- images. According to Profes- onment, and the politics of sor Mbembe, the African city Page 5 Faculty Spotlight: Avital Ronell by Diana Hamilton Berkeley, which helped appeared in the 2002 movie Arendt’s “What is authority”, change that situation. She also Derrida, released by the same regarding the vanishing of co-directs the Trauma/ distribution company as Ex- authority everywhere—an Violence Transdisciplinary amined Life, Zeitgeist Films. event that Arendt laments, Studies Program with Shireen The Centre Pompidou in but which Ronell interrogates. Patell and Dr. J. Alpert, a Paris has invited Ronell to A volume devoted to her program founded as a re- give ten events from May to work, Reading Ronell, is com- sponse to 9/11 and catastro- June as part of a series called ing out shortly. It has contri- phe studies, and it remaps the “Selon Avital” (according to butions from Jean-Luc disciplines by including a Avital), which began with a Nancy, Werner Hamacher, range of first-responders, preamble in December in an Judith Butler and others. ambulance drivers, clinical encounter between Avital and She often appears as an psychologists, trauma theory, Werner Herzog, which filled interrogator: out of the nine human rights, and torture. the house. One of the early philosophers included in Ex- Professor Avital Ronell ar- This fall, Avital will be co- events in the spring will be amined Life, hers is the section rives at the MLA in pants and is teaching a seminar on Hegel, given with Judith Butler. (along with Cornel West’s) kicked out, returns in a skirt Freud, and Literature with Though she leaves for France that most demands the cam- (above the knee) and is kicked Slavoj Žižek. as an American philosopher, era turn back on the film- out again. She is the theorist of She arrived at Berkeley she will soon be arriving in maker; during the Q&A ses- technology, known among An- after studying and teaching in the US as French—she just sion, she begins an explana- gry Women aficionados, and Berlin and Paris, where her finished a book in French tion with “If I were your ana- holds the Jacques Derrida Chair teachers were Jacques Derrida titled American Philo (an abbre- lyst (and maybe I am)”. The of Philosophy and Media at the and Hélène Cixous. She de- viation for “philosophy,” it demanding interrogator, or European Graduate School in scribes leaving Paris because rhymes in French with even the accusatory analyst, Switzerland; she is also the she knew she could “make “psycho”), which has been nears her position as a profes- world expert on stupidity—a more trouble” in the US; the translated into English by sor—one which requires her pervasive phenomenon and position of being a guest is an Catherine Porter, who has to participate in the system of disavowed Marxian concept essentially conservative one, brought Kristeva and a long evaluation her book The Test (Rosa Luxembourg coined the where the pose of gratitude is list of French theorists to Drive traces as a genealogy of word “cretinism,” Marx was de rigueur and comfortable— these shores. testing from torture to truth. obsessed with the material im- and gratitude prevents the Dr. Ronell is a vegetarian It is not only as professor at plications of stupidity) to which activation of skepticism. For who inspired Derrida NYU, but also as a student she has devoted a long-ranging a scholar aware of the prob- to think about being expelled from or di- study. lem of being made grateful, “carnophallogocentrism.” He gested further into various At NYU, Dr. Ronell is a however, Avital is as gener- once pretended to have given academic systems—as a per- Professor of German, Com- ous as is possible. up meat to appease her, but formance artist alongside parative Literature, and English, The release of the movie when she found him out, he Kathy Acker and Carolee and she also holds the title of Examined Life by Astra Taylor spoke in his seminar about Schneeman in California, as a University Professor. She at the IFC Center was the how vegetarians don’t love French/American/German served as the Chair of the De- most recent example of the the other enough, because the academic, as a voice coming partment of German at NYU many film projects with cannibalistic libido is such through Radio Free Theory, from Spring 1997 to Spring which she has been involved. that you want to eat, if not or as an expert on media and 2005, and she taught an annual She gave opening remarks from the get go, devour, the philosophy—that she interro- seminar in Literature & Philoso- and received audience ques- other. And no one is a vege- gates what must be interro- phy at NYU with Derrida from tions at a few of the showings tarian, because the corpses gated, that she cultivates the 1998-2003. She came to NYU of the film, which would decomposing in the ground skepticism necessary to face from UC Berkeley, where she “take philosophy out of the make the soil itself into a meat the often fascistoid lockdown was the resident theorist in a classroom and into the street” product. of meaning. department still very resistant to a forceful gesture that accom- Professor Ronell is cur- theory: If Berkeley’s Compara- panies a different sort of vio- rently working on a book tive Literature Department were lence of editing, shortening called Loser Sons, which deals Diana Hamilton graduated with a medical school, AR says, the participants’ (nine con- with archeophiliac impulses in an honors BA in Comp Lit last “They would still believe in the temporary philosophers, in- politics. It will include a sec- year. humors.” She was instrumental cluding Ronell) comments to tion which asks, “What was in bringing Judith Butler to 10 minutes each. She also authority?”, echoing Hannah Page 6 Alumni News Elizabeth B. Bearden (Ph.D. 2006) is an Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at University of Maryland, Col- lege Park. María del Pilar Blanco (Ph.D. 2007) is a Lecturer in Latin American Literature and Culture at University College London. Marcus Boon (Ph.D. 2000) is an Associate Professor in the English Department at York University in Toronto. A book he edited, Subduing Demons in America: Selected Poems of John Giorno 1962-2007, was recently published by Soft Skull. His second book, In Praise of Coyping, will be published by Harvard University Press next year. He is currently working on a book on spirituality in theory and prac- tice. He became the father of a boy, Jesse, last August. Lou Anne Bulik (Ph.D. 1992) is the Assistant Vice President in University Relations at Widener University in Chester, PA. The department she heads just won a gold award from the Council for the Advancement and Support of Education and a silver award from CUPRAP for their undergraduate viewbook. Their Spring ‘08 Widener Magazine won a bronze award from CUPRAP. She received the ADDY award for her advertising campaign. Jennifer Cayer (Ph.D. 2008) is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of English at Amherst College. Gabrielle Civil (Ph.D. 2000) is an Associate Professor of English and affiliate faculty of the Women’s Studies and Critical Studies of Race and Ethnicity at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul, MN. She is currently in Mexico on a Fulbright Fellowship to make performance art. This May she will be a featured performer at the Museo Ex Teresa Arte Actual (her host institution) and at the Perfor- magia International Performance Festival in Tlaxcala, Mexico. Cecilia Feilla (Ph.D. 2003) is currently a tenure-track Assistant Professor of English at Marymount Manhattan College. She is also the Director of British Literatures for the Northeast Modern Language Association and currently a scholar-in-residence at NYU (spring semester). Robin Truth Goodman (Ph.D. 1997) is an Associate Professor of English at Florida State University, and earned tenure there in August of 2007. Her book, Policing Narratives and the State of Terror (SUNY Press, 2009), is currently in production. Robert McKee Irwin (Ph.D. 1999) was promoted to the rank of full professor in the Spanish Department at the University of Cali- fornia, Davis. He is currently co-editing a book, Diccionario de estudios culturales latinoamericanos (Mexico City: Siglo XXI/Instituto Mora). Dalia Kandiyoti (Ph.D. 1999) has been teaching at CUNY-Staten Island since 2001, and received tenure in 2005. This academic year she is a Visiting Professor at York University in Toronto. She has a forthcoming book from the University Press of New English entitled Migrant Sites: Place, America, and Diaspora Literatures. Orly Lubin (Ph.D. 1991) is now the Chair of the Porter Institute for Poetics and Semiotics at Tel Aviv University, where she is a professor in the Department of Literature and in the NCJW Women and Gender Studies Program. Susan Matthias’s (Ph.D. 2006) translation of "Introduction to T.S. Eliot" by George Seferis, along with her introduction and notes have been published in MODERNISM/Modernity, Volume Sixteen, Number One (2009), pp 143 - 160. This is Greek Nobel Laureate George Seferis's own introduction to his 1936 translation of The Waste Land, now included in the first volume of his essays (Dokimes). Currently she is on the faculty of NYU's School of Continuing and Professional Studies. Bronwyn Mills (Ph.D. 2004) taught in Istanbul for almost four years before accepting a tenure track position at Northern Michigan University. This past fall she returned from teaching and working on research in Benin, West Africa where she was on a Fulbright. She is currently working on several projects including: working on the dissertation-as-book with a publisher; writing about migration and borders, Jose Martí, Subcommandante Marcos, and Guillermo Gomez-Peña; Maroon philosophies; the transatlantic Dan (Rainbow serpent); developing course in Turkish literature. For relaxation, she’s now up to two grandchildren. Mariano Siskind (Ph.D. 2006) is an Assistant Professor (tenure-track) in the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at Harvard University. Laura Tanenbaum (Ph.D. 2003) is an Assistant Professor of English at LaGuardia Community College/CUNY. She has recent fiction in the on-line journals failbetter and Steel City Review. She regularly writes reviews for Open Letters Monthly, and edits the on-line literary journal Vibrant Gray. Jason Weiss (Ph.D. 1999) has published his novel Faces by the Wayside (Six Gallery Press, 2009). He is currently working on an oral history of the ESP-Disk record label. His book reviews have appeared in Bookforum and his record reviews in Signal to Noise. Also, his paper on Nivaria Tejera’s Fuer la spirale for the Tejera conference at Hunter College in March of 2008 will be published in the conference’s book this year.

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Graduate Student Conference: “Waiting Time” By Sonia Werner The Department of Com- sor McKenzie Wark of the parative Literature’s spring New School’s Department of Graduate Student Confer- Culture and Media in a ence, “Waiting Time,” will roundtable tentatively titled take place from Thursday “Waiting Places, Waiting April 16 to Saturday April Spaces.” Professor Paul 18. Through the prism of North of the NYU German waiting, our conference will Department will moderate examine questions concerning the discussion. modernity, aesthetic process, This year’s conference politics, erotics and the tem- theme was chosen through pos of everyday life. discussion among the mem- We are pleased to an- bers of the conference orga- nounce that the CUNY nizing committee: Carli Our annual Graduate Student Conference is taking place after the publica- Graduate Center’s Distin- Cutchin, Ben Hunting, Lucy tion of this Newsletter. Ergo – the future tense. guished Professor of Political Ives, Anastasiya Osipova, CL & Musicology, continued from pg. 2 with events April 4th and on a Science, Professor Marshall Ozen Nergis Seckin, and analysis of biological experi- date to be determined in fall Berman, will deliver our key- Sonia Werner. We would like ments in music in the 1960’s of 2009. “Music, Language, note address, and our own to acknowledge the generous and 1970’s in the context of Thought” is organized by Professor John Hamilton will support from Department of contemporary uses of music for Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra, Amy provide opening remarks on Comparative Literature and purposes of state torture in the Cimini, Michael Gallope, Thursday evening. Friday will the GSAS Graduate Student U.S. “war on terror.” The four Daniel Hoffman-Schwartz, feature paper presentations Council. papers not only “resonated” and Ceci Moss, with generous that we have selected from with one another, but also pro- funding from the depart- over one hundred submis- Sonia Werner is a second year voked lively discussion through- ments of Comparative Litera- sions. On Saturday the Dean Ph.D. candidate whose research out the day amongst the seventy ture and Music, as well as the of Cooper Union’s School of interests include realist literature or so members of the audience; NYU Humanities Initiative. Architecture, Professor An- and the relations between aesthet- Freelance graphic designer thony Vidler, will join Profes- the composition of the audi- ics and politics. ence, including academics from David Rager provided the a wide variety of local universi- event’s much commented ties, as well as a number of in- upon and highly eye-catching dependent art- and music- posters. “SECRETS” critics, was also particularly noteworthy. A one-day conference sponsored by the Daniel Hoffman-Schwartz is a Departments of Comparative Literature and Russian & Slavic Studies This first event in the series 6th year Ph..D. candidate, provided an ideal template for working on a dissertation on future interdisciplinary conver- If one of secrecy’s functions is to distinguish a community of sation; the series will continue comparative romanticism. insiders from a gaggle of clueless outsiders, what would an interdisciplinary effort to understand secrecy look like?

Does the cult of secrecy still flourish best, as Hannah Arendt suggested more than fifty years ago, when the ultimate secret is that there is no secret at all?

Is secrecy about fabricating as much as it is about withhold- ing, not telling, censoring, or holding in reserve?

Keynote Speaker: Professor Yuri Tsivian, University of Chicago “Robespierre Has Been Lost: Secret Mantraps of Film History”

Join us on MAY 2nd as we unravel the mysteries! Prof. Lezra addressed T.W. Adorno’s Philosophy of Music.. Page 8 influx of students The events planned for one she will be presenting at and faculty from the remainder of spring 2009 the conference—“Matters of another depart- reflect the spirit of experi- State: Bildung and Literary- ment, proved an mentation with which the Intellectual Discourse in the energizing change. schedule was planned. In Nineteenth Cenutry,” Leu- The final event of February, Michiel Bot will ven, Belgium—later in the the fall semester present on his dissertation, month. The final event of the also focused on titled “The Right to Offend,” year will feature Katharina on-going disserta- with Prof. Joy Connolly Piechocki (Comparative Lit- tion work. Beata (Classics) as respondent. In erature) presenting on her Potocki and March, the Colloquium will research, in dialogue with her Daniel Hoffman- feature a workshop for the advisor, Prof. Jane Tylus Schwartz pre- up-coming annual meeting of (Italian). sented a portion the American Comparative The 2008-2009 Collo- of a chapter and a Literature Association. This quium was organized by paper for the mock, or mini, ACLA will Daniel Hoffman-Schwartz, MLA’s annual feature short papers by sev- Patrick Gallagher, Michiel meeting, respec- eral students in the depart- Bot, and Magalí Armillas- Prof. Kristin Ross presented her article-in-progress, tively. ment. Presenters include: Lori Tiseyra, with help from Sage “Democracy for Sale” The spring semes- Cole, Katharina Piechocki, Anderson and increased fi- ter began with a Patrick Gallagher, Sage nancial support from the de- (COLLOQUIUM, continued from pg. 1 presentation by Prof. Kristin Anderson, Monika Konwin- partment. The Colloquium Benjamin's Art-Critical The- Ross, titled “Democracy for ska-Connolly, Magalí Armil- will continue next year, how- ory.” In November, the Collo- Sale.” Prof. Ross presented las-Tiseyra, Beata Potocki, as ever, the committee and quium collaborated with the an article-in-progress that she well as Andrea Cooper and schedule remain TBA. See the English department’s Modern is preparing for publication in Yael Dekel from the depart- Colloquium’s website at: Colloquium. Patrick Gallagher a volume of essays on politi- ment of Hebrew and Judaic comparatorium.wordpress.com. (Comparative Literature) and cal philosophy that will also Studies. (see p. 9 for titles) Brendan Beirne (English) pre- feature pieces by Slavoj In April, Erica Weitzman Magalí Armillas-Tiseyra is a sented portions of their disser- Zizek, among others. The (Comparative Literature) and third year Ph.D. candidate tations-in-progress, for which discussion of the article was Natalie Nagel (German) will working on the Dictator Novel their shared advisor, Prof. Phil lively and involved, demon- present on their respective in Latin America & Africa. Harper, was the respondent. strating the extent to which dissertations projects. Like The re-location of this event to the Colloquium is becoming a Daniel Hoffman-Schwartz in the Ireland House, as well as the center for exchange. December, Erica’s paper is .

(DOCUMENTA, continued from pg 2) sities and of cities. Susan Protheroe, Dale Ret- We also had the privilege of jmar, Nancy Ruttenberg, counting with the presence of Lidia Santos, Jason Stanyek, five of the filmmakers whose Catherine Stimpson, Laura films we were screening; one of Turegano, and to all the Film- them—João Moreira Salles makers and Producers who came from Rio de Janeiro to kindly provided their films take part in the festival. The for this festival. presence of directors and producers gave the public a chance to engage with those who are Micaela Kramer is a 4th year usually behind the camera and Ph.D. candidate in the Com- the scenes in several Q&A ses- parative Literature Department sions and one round table. at NYU. Our deepest thanks go to Tom Abercrombie, Graciela M. Báez, Gabriela Basterra, Javier Fernando Pérez hopes to have Guerrero, Carlos Gutiérrez, finished his Ph.D. by the end of John Hamilton, Felipe Lara, March 2009 and will return to José Miguel Wisnik: composer, pianist, professor of Brazilian litera- Sylvia Molloy, Marta Peixoto, Chile to teach there. ture, essayist, poet—and one highlight of Documenta Brazil 2008. Page 9 Graduate Student Awards, 2008-2009 Haytham Bahoora, 2008-2009 Arts Robyn Creswell, 2009-2010 Dean’s Katharina N. Piechocki, 3-month and Science Prize Teaching Fellowship Dissertation Fellowship, Summer 2008 research grant from the Austrian Re- MacDowell Colony Fellowship search Society (ÖFG) for summer 2009, Michiel Bot, 2009-2010 Dean’s Disser- Summer 2008 NYU Global Fellowship tation Fellowship Daniel Hoffman-Schwartz, 2008 GSAS Summer Predoctoral Fellowship Erica Weitzman, 2008-2009 stipend in Jieun Chang, 2008-2009 Anais Min the DFG Graduiertertenkolleg Memorial Fellowship John Patrick Leary, 2008-2009 Mel- "Lebensformen und Lebenswissen" at lon/ACLS Dissertation Completion Ipek Celik, 2008-2009 Penfield Fellow- Europa-Universität Viadrina and Uni- Fellowship ship versität Potsdam Anne Mulhall, 2008-2009 Fulbright Lori Cole, 2008 Patricia Dunn Lehrman Besides Dean’s Dissertation Fellows, GSAS Fellowship Fellowship Award recipients for 2009-10 have not yet

been announced. Recent Dissertations Chris Apap America Unbound: The Early American Geographical Imagination and the Shaping of the Nation Maria Pilar Blanco Ghost-watching American Modernity: Haunting the Hemispheric Imaginary Lee Foust Dante's Orpheus and the Poetics of Christian Catabasis David Georgi Language Made Visible: The Invention of French in England after the Norman Conquest Hui Jiang From Lu Xun to Zhao Shuli: The Politics of Recognition in Chinese Literary Modernity: A Geneology of Storytelling Melissa Myambo The Politics of Blood: The Poetics of (un)Belonging in the Era of Globalization Fernando Perez The Eye and the Ear: Ezra Pound, Brazilian Concrete Poetry, and their Paideuma Carlos Velosodasilva Call For Poets: Eduardo Lourenco in his Labyrinth of Images

Grad Students Present at the ACLA To give you an idea of the wide range of topics on which our current grad students are working, here’s what they recently presented at the ACLA: • Lori Cole. “Rewriting the Vanguard: Guillermo de Torre and the Origins of Ultraísmo” (Seminar: The Manifesto: Map- ping the International Avant-Gard) • Katharina Piechocki. “Spectacular Ruins: Early Modern Theater and the Desire for the Inaccessible Stanza” (Seminar: Ruins: Politics, History, and the Literary) • Patrick Gallagher. “A Sector for Publishing: Manufacturing or Services?: The Commodification of the Author and Con- temporary Literature” (Seminar: Master of the Universe: Literature, Culture, and Finance Culture) • Sage Anderson. “The Right to Laziness/Decadence of “Rights”: Lafargue vs. Nietzsche on What to do with Time” (Seminar: Human Rights, Literary Culture Within/Against Globalization) • Monika Connolly. “Re-mapping Nationalism: Szczypiorski’s Poçątek and Ghosh’s The Shadow Lines” (Seminar: Global & Local Identities and the Return of Nationalism?) • Magali Armillas-Tiseyra. “Su Raro Destino: On the Dictator’s Daughter in José Mármol and Juana Manuela Gor- riti” (Seminar: The Un-homely: Outsider Subjects and Civil Conflict) • Beata Potocki. “The Inhuman: Impersonality and the Political in Pierre Guyotat” • Andrea Cooper and Yael Dekel (dept. of Hebrew and Judaic Studies). “Language, Medicine and the Silence of the Hu- man/Animal” (Seminar: Sounds of Silence: Silence and Speech in Cultural, Political, and Ethical Contexts) DEPARTMENT OF COMPARATIVE LITERATURE NEW YORK UNIVERSITY 13-19 University Place, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10003

Web: http://www.nyu.edu/fas/dept/complit