Appel à com : "Forum on contemporary Theory", University of Pune, India

[Madeleine L.]

VIII THEORY/PRAXIS COURSE
June 14 - July 10, 2010

Venue: Department of English, University of Pune


FORUM ON CONTEMPORARY THEORY
Centre for Contemporary Theory
C-304, Siddhi Vinayak Complex
Behind Vadodara Railway Station
Faramji Road, Off. R. C. Dutt Road
Vadodara 390 007
Email: prafullakar@gmail.com
fctbaroda@gmail.com, librarycct@yahoo.co.in Tel : (0265) 2320870
Website : www.fctworld.org


The Forum on Contemporary Theory has been conducting an intensive
course in Theory/Praxis since 2003 for the benefit of scholars across
disciplines interested in new developments in Theory and their
application. The Course includes intensive textual readings in
specific areas, supported by seminars and talks on broader but related
issues. The Course will be held in the University of Pune from June 14
to July 10, 2010.

COURSE OUTLINES
The Course is organized around the following topics to be discussed
in-depth by the core faculty, supported by public lectures and
mini-seminars by the invited scholars.

1) Matters of Life & Death (Faculty: Costica Bradatan) The recent
resurgence of the phenomenon of "suicide bombing" has starkly reminded
us of the important political functions that a dying body can perform.
From the Buddhist monks who immolated themselves in Vietnam in early
1960s to Jan Palach, who did the same thing in Czechoslovakia in 1969,
from the Japanese kamikazes during the WWII to today's
suicide-bombers, the ways in which one's violent death can be turned
into an expressive political gesture have been as different as have
the ultimate goals sought through such an act. However, despite its
persistence and shocking occurrences, this type of voluntary death
hasn't yet received the theoretical treatment it deserves; social and
political theorists are still to come up with a comprehensive and
interdisciplinary understanding of the dying body as a carrier of
political, ideological and religious messages.

This course has been born precisely out of the felt need for such a
broader understanding of the body and the political functions it can
perform in radical situations. The primary theoretical premise on
which the course is based is Maurice Merleau-Ponty's insight that the
"use a man is to make of his body is transcendent in relation to that
body as a mere biological entity." Drawing on this insight, we will be
looking at various practices through which a body can be made to
transcend itself.

The course is dedicated to exploring the body as the locus of a number
of fundamental experiences: the experience of a living (embodied)
being, "thrown into the world," of living in limit-situations
(torture, starvation, physical degradation), the experience of
finitude and imperfection, of overcoming one's natural fear of death,
finally the experience of self-transcending and re-signification
through dying a violent voluntary death. We will be discussing several
types of such voluntary death: martyrdom, self-immolation as a form of
political protest, suicide-bombing and the kamikaze pilots.

In terms of textual resources, we will be analyzing texts on the
phenomenology of the body (Merleau-Ponty), on the phenomenology of
death and dying (Heidegger, Landsberg and Michelstaedter), as well as
scholarly literature on the posthumous significance that a "martyred
body" can acquire in radicalized contexts (Girard). We will also
examine fiction literature (Lev Tolstoy), literature by Nazi camp
survivors such as Primo Levi and Jean Améry, as well as personal
diaries left behind by Japanese kamikaze pilots. Finally, in order to
make our approach more intuitive and, at the same time, more
interdisciplinary, we will be watching and discussing a number of
films on the subject by such major directors as Bergman, Pontecorvo,
Benigni, and Iñárritu.

Course Structure:
* Session I: The Body as a Philosophical Problem; the Body and the
World; Being-in-the-World.
o Readings: Merleau-Ponty, Phenomenology of Perception, pp. 77-232;
Heidegger, Being and Time, pp. 149-224.
o Film viewing: 21 Grams (Dir. Alejandro González Iñárritu)

* Session II: Death as a Philosophical Problem; Living with Death;
Death and (the Quest for) Authenticity; Death, Irony and Humor o
Readings: Heidegger, Being and Time, pp. 279-311; Tolstoy, The Death
of Ivan Ilyich; Michelstaedter, Persuasion and Rhetoric, pp. 7-57 o
Film viewing: The Barbarian Invasions (Dir. Denys Arcand)

* Session III: Overcoming the Fear of Death; Self-Transcending; Dying
as a Rite of Passage; Death and Meaning o Readings: Plato, Apology;
Landsberg, "The Experience of Death"; Michelstaedter, Persuasion and
Rhetoric, pp. 61-100 o Film viewing: The Seventh Seal (Dir. Ingmar
Bergman)

* Session IV: Marked for Death; Torture and Resistance; Scapegoating;
o Readings: Améry, "Torture," pp. 21-40; Girard, The Scapegoat, pp.
1-75 o Film viewing: The Battle of Algiers (Dir. Gillo Pontecorvo)

* Session V: Dying vs. Death; the Body in the Concentration Camp;
Death and Annihilation o Readings: Améry, "At the Mind's Limits," pp.
1-20; Primo Levi, Survival in Auschwitz o Film viewing: Life is
Beautiful (Dir. Roberto Benigni)

* Session VI: Making the Most of the Dying Body. Various Political
Uses of the Body; Narratives of Martyrdom o Readings: Girard, The
Scapegoat, pp. 100-148; Emiko Ohnuki-Tierney, Kamikaze Diaries; Luke
Allnutt, "A True Martyr"
o Film viewing: Paradise now (Dir. Hany Abu-Assad)


2) Can Subaltern Studies Speak? A Critical Reading of Three Decades of
Discourse on and of Subalternists and Subalternity (Faculty: Arjuna
Parakrama)

While detractors would admit that the subalternist intervention in
colonial historiography and cultural studies was both important and
influential, ardent acolytes will concede that there's been a decline
in both interest and interesting new work in the field. This course
seeks to examine the ways in which subaltern studies has perceived
itself and has been understood by others during the past three
decades, in order to better predict its future trajectory. Thus,
subaltern theory will be subjected to a discourse study, the
assumption being that its reception and reproduction, both complex
discursive processes, are (mis)appropriations of power/knowledge in
globalised space.
Since the public inauguration of Subaltern Studies in the early 1980s,
and particularly with Ranajit Guha's "manifesto" in Subaltern Studies
I: Writings on South Asian History and Society (1982) this
loosely-knit group of Indian historians and cultural theorists enjoyed
a two-decade-long wave of popularity in Indian and Anglo-US academe.
Many imitations and applications were spawned during this period, even
the inner circle of the Subaltern Studies Collective grew to around 15
amidst much soul-searching [See Hardiman 1986], and included adherents
in the most prestigious US and Australian universities. Caricature
accounts had US graduate students looking for subalterns in every nook
and cranny, and the crudest misunderstandings degenerated into
celebrations of primitivism and the romanticizing of marginality.

To risk a generalization that this course will unpack, at a more
serious level the British and US responses to Subaltern Studies have
been markedly divergent because each sees different aspects as its
core content. While the first response dealt almost exclusively with
colonial historiography, this was quickly followed by a literary
critical appropriation of Subaltern Studies which gradually became the
one of the trendiest methodologies in US English Departments.
Throughout this period the definition of the term "subaltern" came
under constant scrutiny and regular revision, a discursive arena that
will be meticulously mapped in our readings.

Subaltern Studies' origins as a critical engagement with Marxism is
well-known. Hence, serious opposition to Subaltern Studies has most
consistently come from the traditional left which argues that
revolutionary struggle is being diverted to over-nuanced abstractions
and obscurantist theory. A related major strand of criticism
exemplified by members of the Cambridge School held that the
Subalternists have nothing new to offer which either (British)
Marxists and/or Indian historians had not discussed earlier. A rising
antagonism from within India, including by a few former members of the
Collective such as Sumit Sarkar, has critiqued what it perceives as
the post-structuralist turn of later subaltern work. However, the
early excitement, both pro and con has diminished, and during the last
five or so years the output and interest in Subalternity has reached a
low ebb, prompting some critics to express the view that it was merely
a fad whose heyday was irrevocably past. We will track these changes
in terms of their over-arching conceptual ramifications in the context
of the global financial crisis and the rise of ethno-nationalist
conflict and reconstitution of new social movements.

This course seeks to map the trajectory of subaltern studies as well
as critical responses to it over the past three decades, in the
attempt to theorize future roles for this intellectual movement. Of
particular interest in this regard will be the detailed examination of
subaltern studies relationship to Marxism and postcolonial theories in
the current conjuncture. The unabashedly elite status of subaltern
scholars and the disciplinary privileging of India (even within South
Asia) will also be scrutinized to identify how this gets played out in
their analysis and presentation.
As a capstone exercise, participants will be invited to present a
preliminary analysis of a contemporary intervention of struggle or
resistance that they feel strongly about from a subaltern perspective,
which includes the use of alternative sources and methodologies to
mainstream research.

Course Structure:
* Session I: Subaltern Studies and the Critique of Colonial
Historiography: New Wine in Old Bottles?
o Readings: Selections from Guha, Ranajit Elementary Aspects of
Peasant Insurgency, Dominance without Hegemony, and Guha and Spivak
(eds.) Selected Subaltern Studies. Essays by Chandravarkar, Brass and
Bayley in Mapping Subaltern Studies o Creative Expression: La Nouba
des femmes du Mont Chenoua [Film by Assia Djebar]

* Session II: Subaltern Studies and Marxism: Fellow Travellers or
Incommensurable Alternatives?
o Readings: Essays by O'Hanlon, Washbrook, Prakash (Response), Lazarus
& Varma o Creative Expression: Genesis [Film by Mrinal Sen]

* Session III: Subaltern Studies and Postcolonial Theory: Orientalism
Revisited, Eurocentrism Reinscribed o Readings: Lazarus & Varma,
Prakash, Spivak "Can the Subaltern Speak?"
o Creative Expression: Kanafani "Men in the Sun" [See Bibliography]

* Session IV: The Literary Appropriation of Subaltern Studies: Spivak
and Subaltern Sources o Readings: Selections from Spivak, Gayatri In
Other Worlds, Other Asias, and the interviews o Creative Expression:
Devi, Mahasweta "Draupadi" and "Stanadayini" [English translation by
Gayatri Spivak contained in In Other Worlds]

* Session V: Synthesizing the Contribution of Subaltern Studies to
Present Struggles: Public Debates and Private Wars o Readings: A
collection of critical essays and responses from the Economic &
Political Weekly in the 1980s and 90s, James C Scott.
o Creative Expression: Selected Film Documentaries

* Session VI: Whither Subaltern Studies Tomorrow? Subjects,
Approaches, Saturation of an Area o Readings: Chatterjee (Selections),
Gunawardena, Pandian, Arnold (Selection) o Creative Expression: Abaa
(Sri Lankan Film by Jackson Anthony)

* Session VII: Participant Presentations and Discussion: How is
Subaltern Theory Useful Today?


COLLABORATION AND ORGANIZATIONAL DETAILS The eighth Theory/Praxis
course is jointly organized by the Forum on Contemporary Theory,
Baroda and the Department of English, University of Pune. The program
will be conducted by a core faculty and invited speakers for a period
of four weeks. Study material will be made available to the
participants after their registration; the participants are expected
to have gone through the material before the commencement of the
Course. Each participant is required to make at least one formal
presentation during the course, which will be evaluated by a member of
the core faculty. Both faculty and participants are expected to stay
together in the same venue for greater interaction and exchange
between them.

PARTICIPATION CRITERIA
Participation in the Course is mainly open to scholars in the
humanities and social sciences, preferably those working toward
research degrees, but post-graduate students and post-doctoral
scholars in these disciplines and scholars from the disciplines
outside the humanities and social sciences interested in
inter-disciplinary studies can also apply. Maximum number of
participants to be selected is 35.

REGISTRATION FEE
Each participant is required to pay a registration fee of Rs.7000/
(Rupees seven thousand only) to the Forum on Contemporary Theory
through a bank draft drawn on a bank in Baroda. The registration fee
is non-refundable. The fee will take care of his/her board and
lodging, cost of course material and other related expenses. The
participants will not be paid by the organizers for their travel.

DEADLINE FOR APPLICATION
The last date for receiving application for participation is April 5,
2010. The application may be sent to Director, Centre for Contemporary
Theory, Baroda. Selection for participation will be made by April 20,
2010. Selected candidates are required to send the bank draft favoring
Forum on Contemporary Theory before May 5, 2010. Course material will
be mailed only after receiving the registration fee.

CORE FACULTY
Costica Bradatan is Assistant Professor of Honors at Texas Tech
University. He has also taught at Cornell University, Miami
University, as well as at several universities in Europe (England,
Germany, Hungary and Romania). Currently (2009-2010) he is a Solmsen
Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison's Institute for Research
in the Humanities. Bradatan has held research fellowships at, among
others, University of Wisconsin-Madison, University of California Los
Angeles, and the Newberry Library in Chicago. His research interests
include Continental philosophy, history of philosophy, East-European
philosophy, and philosophy of literature. Bradatan's most recent book
The Other Bishop Berkeley: An Exercise in Reenchantment was published
with Fordham University Press in 2006. He is also the author of two
other books (in Romanian): An Introduction to the History of Romanian
Philosophy in the 20th Century (Bucharest, 2000) and Isaac Bernstein's
Diary (Bucharest, 2001), as well as of several dozens of scholarly
papers, essays, encyclopedia entries, book translations and book
reviews. He has co-edited (with Serguei Alex. Oushakine) In Marx's
Shadow. Knowledge, Power and Intellectuals in Eastern Europe and
Russia (Lexington Books, 2010) and guest-edited two special journal
issues: one on "Philosophy as Literature" for The European Legacy
(Summer 2009) and another on "Philosophy in Eastern Europe" for
Angelaki (forthcoming).

Arjuna Parakrama is currently Visiting Professor at the School of
Language & Linguistics of the National University of Malaysia. He was
Professor of English (Cadre Chair) at Sri Lanka's oldest and most
prestigious university, the University of Peradeniya, from 2004 -
2009. He has also served in the United Nations in Nepal and elsewhere
as an expert on (post)conflict development and human rights, and has a
parallel existence working with multiply marginalized communities in
Sri Lanka's war-ravaged "border villages". Professor Parakrama was a
Fulbright New Century Scholar in 2007/8, a Senior Fellow at the
Carnegie Council on Ethics & International Affairs (2000/1), a Senior
Fellow at the US Institute of Peace (1999/2000) and a Guggenheim
Research Grantee (2002). Among his publications are three books,
De-Hegemonizing Language Standards (Macmillan, 1995), Language and
Rebellion (Katha, 1990) and Collected Poems (2002) and a monograph
Social Cleaving: Resistance and Loss within a Bereaved Culture (2004).
His current research interests include anti-languages,
extra-linguistic value systems embedded within everyday language,
collective trauma and social cleaving in (post)conflict societies, and
subaltern discourse.

RESIDENCE
Accommodation for outstation participants is made in the Guest House
of the University of Pune

ATTENDANCE
The participants are required to attend all the sessions and to stay
until the end of the program in order to get the certificate of
participation.

APPLICATION FORMAT
The following format may be used for the application:
Name
Address (including telephone no. and email ID) Institutional
Affiliation Date of Birth Department Teaching Experience (indicate
number of years also) Academic Qualifications Areas of Research and
Teaching Publications, if any Specific Research Topics, if any Whether
Registered for Research Degree?
Whether participated in any Course organized by the Forum? If
participated, when?
A Brief Statement (200 words) about what you expect to gain from the
Course Names and Addresses of Two Referees Signature Date

ADDRESS FOR CORRESPONDENCE
Prafulla C. Kar
Director, Centre for Contemporary Theory
C-304 Siddhi Vinayak Complex,
Behind Vadodara Railway Station (Alkapuri Side) Faramji Road,
Vadodara- 390007
Tel: 0265- 2320870
Email: prafullakar@gmail.com
Website: www.fctworld.org

Bajrang S. Korde
Local Coordinator
Professor & Head
Department of English
University of Pune
Tel: 020-25690648/25601332
Mobile: 09422518108
E-mail: korde@unipune.ernet.in