The Long Twentieth Century (1885-2008): Literature, Politics, Aesthetics
A one-day conference
Department of English and Comparative Literature
Goldsmiths, University of London
September 18th 2013
?I see the political potential of art in art itself, in the aesthetic
form as such? (Raymond Williams)
?Literature does politics by simply being literature? (Jacques Rancière)
Keynote Speakers:
Professor Paul Hamilton, Queen Mary, University of London
Professor Josh Cohen, Goldsmiths, University of London
Jean?Luc Nancy, Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe and Jacques Rancière have
all, in different ways, argued that any radical concept of the
political is almost always dependent on the category of the aesthetic.
The production of critique that avoids the reduction of the political
to a dogmatic, one-dimensional orthodoxy is still as difficult today
as it ever was, perhaps even more so with the so-called decline
(welcome or otherwise) of ideology and the changed nature of the
political. Examining these ideas, then, this one-day conference
questions whether a productive relationship still exists between the
political and the literary. It seeks to bring together ?older? forms
of Marxist literary theory with a more ?continental? version, perhaps
epitomised by Rancière?s recent work, in order to examine where the
idea of the ?ideology of the aesthetic? now stands. The conference
will explore the following questions: how has the relationship between
politics and literature--the world in the text--evolved since the end
of the nineteenth century? How have the various tumults and upheavals
of the last hundred years or so shaped our definition of the
political? How have both literature and literary theory adapted to the
?new spirit of capitalism?? Is the idea of a meaningful relationship
between literature and politics now outmoded? Does popular culture now
have say more about politics than professionalised literary practices?
Possible subjects for consideration might include:
- the ?failure? of the avant garde
- work and non-work
- civil unrest
- the ?market?
- feeling and affect
- democracy and terror
- the decline of the public university
- class, gender, race
- ethics and reading
- sex/sexuality/love
- the professionalisation of literature
Deadline for abstracts of no more than 350 words by April 15th 2013
to: [log in to unmask]
http://www.gold.ac.uk/the-long-twentieth-century/
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