996008 Narratives and/of exclusion (S) (SoSe 2017)

Beginning with (but not restricting itself to) the problems of prison writing, this seminar explores narratives and exclusion, with a focus on both production and reception conditions. We will consider the relationship between narrative and violence, and the possibilities for narrative violence and narrative resistance to violence. We will also explore what makes a story tellable or speakable; and, importantly, what makes narratives audible (under what conditions are we willing and able to listen?).

Schedule:

29 May

6-8pm: Kolloquium zur Zeitgeschichte (Colloquium History Department)
Presentation and Discussion: Prison writing problems: Narrative exclusion, narrative collaboration, and risky listening

30 May

(Session 1) 10am–1pm (Coffee Break 11.30am): Narrative and violence

Hayden White (1981), ‘The Value of Narrativity in the Representation of Reality’. Critical Inquiry 7, (1980), 5-27

Dylan Rodríguez (2002), ‘Against the Discipline of “Prison Writing”: Toward a Theoretical Conception of Contemporary Radical Prison Praxis’ in Genre 35, 407-28

Judith Butler (2005), ‘An Account of Oneself’, in Butler, Giving an Account of Oneself (New York: Fordham University Press), 3-40

Adriana Cavarero (2015), ‘Narrative Against Destruction’, in New Literary History 46, 1-16

Lunch Break

(Session 2) 2–5pm (Coffee Break 3.30pm): Narratives and/of exclusion

Paul Gready (1993) Autobiography and the ‘power of writing’: political prison writing in the apartheid era, Journal of Southern African Studies 19, 489-523

Sophia Richman (2006), ‘Finding One’s Voice: Transforming Trauma into Autobiographical Narrative’, Contemporary Psychoanalysis 42, 639-50.

Tiffany Ana Lopez (2005), ‘Critical Witnessing in Latino/a and African American Prison Narratives’, in Prose and Cons: Essays on Prison Literature in the United States, ed. by D. Quentin Miller (Jefferson, NC: McFarland) 62-77

Thomas Ugelvik (2015), ‘The Rapist and the Proper Criminal: The Exclusion of Immoral Others as Narrative Work on the Self’, in Narrative Criminology: Understanding Stories of Crime, ed. by Lois Presser and Sveinung Sandberg (New York: New York University Press), 23-41

31 May

(Session 3)

10am–1pm (Coffee Break 11.30am): The ethics and possibility of attending to the Other

Derek Attridge (1999), “Innovation, Literature, Ethics: Relating to the Other.” PMLA 114 20-31

Dominick LaCapra (1999), ‘Trauma, Absence, Loss’ in Critical Inquiry 25 696-727

Judith Butler (2004), ‘Violence, Mourning, Politics’, in Butler, Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning. London: Verso, 19-49

Ina Linge (2015), ‘Hospitable Reading: An Approach to Life Writings of Gender and Sexual “Deviants”’, in Crimes of Passion: Repräsentationen der Sexualpathologie im frühen 20. Jahrhundert, ed. Japhet Johnstone and Oliver Böni. Berlin: de Gruyter, 74-92

(the readings will be available in April)