OCCT Trinity Term 2021 Week 4 updates

On Monday we joined Eleni Philippou for the online book launch of her newly-published monograph, Speaking Politically: Adorno and Postcolonial Fiction. In this monograph Theodor Adorno’s philosophy engages with postcolonial texts and authors that emerge out of situations of political extremity – apartheid South Africa, war-torn Sri Lanka, Pinochet’s dictatorship, and the Greek military junta.

Don’t forget to book your tickets for Oxford Translation Day, which will take place as a series of virtual events, including recordings of the shortlisted Oxford-Weidenfeld translators discussing their work. These recordings will be made available on the OCCT website on 12 June. Here is a quick taster of Oxford Translation Day’s extended programme of events:

On 31 May, together with Queen’s Translation Exchange, we welcome Anton Hur, the English translator of Bora Chung’s Cursed Bunny. In this event, Hur describes “the curse of knowledge” in translation, or the various ways an otherwise learned and well-meaning translator can inadvertently sabotage their own work. On 11 June, Ros Schwartz discusses her translation of A Long Way from Douala. This novel is the first publication in English of a work by Max Lobé, a Cameroonian writer hailed as an important new voice in African writing. On 12 June, join Adriana X. Jacobs to discuss and read poems from her translation of Vaan Nguyen’s The Truffle Eye. Vaan Nguyen has been described as "a veritable juggler of Hebrew," a poet whose work radically remixes world classics and pop culture, the personal and the political, past and present. Also, on 12 June, Abdilatif Abdalla and Annmarie Drury read from Abdalla’s poetry collection Sauti ya Dhiki (Voice of Agony), one of the most important Swahili poetry collections of the twentieth century, and discuss its art and the story behind it.

All events are free but require registration. Register here by 10 June: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1Z_z4PhIy-DZzYWGLdKU-iXJDpJwZEoWdnVNwtKOx458/viewform?edit_requested=true.

Events

1.TRAGEDY AND PHILOSOPHY
Centre for Philosophy and Critical Thought
Annual Conference 2021
Goldsmiths, University of London

2-4 and 9-11 June, 2021
3:30-7:30pm BST, online

KEYNOTES: Miriam Leonard (UCL), Manfred Posani Löwenstein (Istituto Italiano per gli Studi Storici), Tina Chanter (Newcastle), Jeremy Glick (Hunter College, CUNY), Rebecca Comay (Toronto)

REGISTRATION: https://gold-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJUuce-vrD0sGNQDSl7RtdiGf04v5PjFu5Go

DESCRIPTION:
Pivotal for the history of aesthetics are the encounters between philosophy and tragedy that span from Ancient Greece to the decolonizing Caribbean. Ever since its infamous exclusion in Plato’s Republic and its theorisation in Aristotle’s Poetics, tragedy has played a number of often contrasting roles in philosophy’s own self-understanding. Tragedy has variously been conceived as an origin of philosophical (and dialectical) thought, as a limit to philosophy’s efforts at intellectual sovereignty, as well as a constant source of ethical exemplification and conceptual instruction. While conscious of the stakes of philosophy’s image of tragedy, this conference will try to expand its purview to look beyond and beneath a late-eighteenth early-nineteenth century idea of the tragic which has often come to saturate reflection on this relationship. Tragedy and Philosophy will therefore also seek to consider a variety of themes that transcend the equation between tragedy and the tragic, including: the contribution of anthropology and history to an understanding of the specificity of Greek tragedy; the place of femininity, lament and conflict in ancient Greek tragedies; the relation between music and words in tragedy, and its philosophical significance (including in tragedy’s repetition by modern opera); the early modern emergence of a poetics of tragedy irreducible to Aristotelian and Idealist or Romantic variants; tragedy as a reflection on sovereignty; tragedy as an art intimately linked to moments of crisis and transition.

This virtual conference is organised in sessions distributed over six days. Each panel will take place from 3:30-5:30pm BST and each keynote address from 6:00-7:30pm BST. Sessions will be followed by a discussion. A concluding roundtable will close the conference.

For abstracts and speaker bios, please visit https://cpct.uk/2021/05/16/tragedy-and-philosophy-cpct-annual-conference-2021-2-4-and-9-11-june-online/.

2. Borderlines Open School of Advanced Cross-Cultural Studies proudly presents a new cycle of lectures in Literature / Philosophy by Prof. Saul Morson (Northwestern University)

The Genre of Philosophical Story around the World

This focused cycle considers a form of narrative present in cultures around the world, the philosophical story. These stories pose questions about life: what is life’s meaning, how do we face our inevitable death, why is there evil and suffering, what does it mean to be human, and how should we live. In various epochs and in many cultures, such narratives demonstrate very similar features. Together with Professor Morson, expert in literary theory, history of ideas and philosophy, we will go into the complexities, depths, mysteries, and riddles of this genre to see how these stories are constructed and what they aim to impart to their readers.

Join us for a free introductory lecture “Wisdom and Sage” on May 21, 5pm ET. This webinar will focus on how philosophical stories work, what can they do better than philosophical essays and how they show us the complexity of things.

Texts to be covered in the introductory lecture:
The Wisdom of Solomon. Kings, chapter 3 https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Kings%203&version=NIV
Voltaire, “The Story of a Good Brahmin” https://www.k-state.edu/english/baker/english287/Voltaire-Story_of_a_Good_Brahmin.htm
G. K. Chesterton, “The Secret of Father Brown” https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/chestertongk-secretoffatherbrown/chestertongk-secretoffatherbrown-00-h.html
Jorge Luis Borges, “The Garden of Forking Paths” http://mycours.es/gamedesign2012/files/2012/08/The-Garden-of-Forking-Paths-Jorge-Luis-Borges-1941.pdf

Topics to be covered in the course: Wisdom and the Sage, Death, Life’s Meaning, Evil and Human Nature, The World of Others

Read more about the instructor: https://borderlinesopenschool.org/faculty/gary-saul-morson
Read more about the course: https://borderlinesopenschool.org/courses/p/phil-story

3. Durham University’s Centre for Jewish Culture, Society, and Politics, with the support of the School of Modern Languages and Cultures, are honored to announce the details of the annual Lucille Cairns Memorial Lecture Series, which will take place online on 25 May, 2021 at 16.00 GMT. Prof. Lucille Cairns was an eminent professor of French literature and culture, a generous mentor, and a committed teacher.

This year’s lecture will be given by Prof. ChaeRan Freeze, the Frances and Max Elkon Chair in Modern Jewish History at Brandeis University, on the topic of “Love Actually? Intimacy in Zinaida Poliakova’s Diaries in Imperial Russia.” Zoom link below.

Love Actually? Intimacy in Zinaida Poliakova’s Diaries in Imperial Russia

Zinaida Poliakova (1863-1953) was the eldest daughter of Lazar and Rozaliia Poliakov, known as the Russian Rothschilds, who dominated finance and railroads in Imperial Russia. Her diaries shed light on the “political economy of intimacy”—a complex calculus of capital, aristocratic sociability, cultural patronage, and imperial charity—in which her family participated. Critical to personalizing this political intimacy were the Poliakov women, who were active hosts in their aristocratic salon and munificent patron of the arts. Intimacy in the family was another theme in Poliakova’s diaries, revealing the deep tensions and transformations in Jewish everyday life in Russia and later France.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://durhamuniversity.zoom.us/j/95329773717?pwd=Z2tuRFpYcUtXNU1BTGVaSDQxbFpIdz09

Meeting ID: 953 2977 3717

Passcode: 284134

4. Summer of Love: Dialogues on Digital Romance at Warwick's Centre for Digital Inquiry

A.I. Just Wanna Have Fun

The Summer of Love goes on with Alfie Bown (Royal Holloway University) and Isabel Millar (University of Kent). Their research draws on psychoanalytic theories to understand our relationships with digital technologies, and their philosophical and political implications. Join them and Carolina Bandinelli (University of Warwick) to explore how we are subject and object of desire and enjoyment in the digital world.

May, 27th 16:00 - 17:30

Everyone is welcome, just register here.