Proposed panel for the 2000 MLA in Washington DC 27-30 December. Deadline
for abstracts: 10 March 2000
"Theoretical Cruelty"
Recent work on the topic of 'cruelty' in French philosophy (by Clement
Rosset, Camille Dumoulie) has claimed that abstract argument has failed to
accommodate the chaotic and threatening reality of cruelty, and that
abstraction itself can be 'cruel' in its efforts to avoid this reality.
Does the category of 'theory' (feminist, postcolonial, poststructuralist
psychoanalytic etc.) offer important variations on or exceptions to the
polarized opposition they describe? Contributions are welcome from a
range of theoretical fields to explore such issues as: the relationship
between cruelty and theoretical abstraction; the coerciveness of
theoretical systems or models of interpretation; the problem of the
theme/treatment of physical pain/suffering in theoretical argument about
literary texts/cultural artifacts.
Please send 1-2 page abstracts by March 10th 2000 to:
Catherine Toal
English Department
Barker Center
12 Quincy St
Harvard University
Cambridge MA 02138
or email them to ctoal@fas.harvard.edu
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