Literature in/and/of Crisis
OSL Graduate seminar “Literature in/and\of Crisis”
Introductory course for research masters, 23-25 January 2012
Spuistraat 210, Amsterdam, room 420
Monday – Day 1
Teachers: Sander Bax and Thomas Vaessens
10.00-11.30
Contemporary crises in literature and society
- Marx, W., L’adieu à la literature. Parijs 2005.
- Judt, T., Reappraisals. Reflections on the forgotten twentieth century. 2009.
11.30-13.30
Diagnoses from a cultural historical perspective
Historical crises
In this session we will elaborate on the work of three speakers that will speak at the conference: Saskia Pieterse, Arnold Labrie and Léon Hanssen. We will discuss some of their earlier work. Depending on the number of students, we will ask every student to focus on one or two texts and to prepare three relevant questions that have to do with the way the speakers deal with the notion of crisis. Furthermore, we will ask the students to make an interpretive connection between the theoretical texts and an specific literary text they choose from their own research focus. This have to be small texts (poems, short stories, book chapters) that can be easily spread (via e-mail or Xerox) In the course of the session every student will have to formulate one fundamental question or statement in relation to each of the presentations.
13.30-15.00
Lunch, Kantine Bungehuis
15.00-17.00
In the afternoon we will try to create a link between the texts we have read this morning and the research plans of the research master students. Depending on the number of students we will ask four / five students to present a research proposal that is linked to the theme of crisis and uses a cultural historical perspective. This proposal will be discussed by the other students and the teachers; it will become the starting point for the essay that the students will be writing for this course.
Tuesday – Second day
Teachers: Sander Bax and Thomas Vaessens
10.00-12.30
Contemporary crises
In this second session we will elaborate on the work of three speakers that will speak at the conference: Frans-Willem Korsten, Liesbeth Noordegraaf-Eelens en Willem Schinkel. We will discuss some of their earlier work. Depending on the number of students, we will ask every student to focus on one text and to prepare three relevant questions that have to do with the way the speakers deal with the notion of crisis. Furthermore, we will ask the students to make an interpretive connection between the theoretical text and an specific literary text they choose from their own research focus. This have to be small texts (poems, short stories, book chapters) that can be easily spread (via e-mail or Xerox) In the course of the session every other student will have to formulate one fundamental question or statement in relation to each of the presentations.
12.30-14.00
Lunch, Kantine Bungehuis
14.00-16.00
In the afternoon we will try to create a link between the texts we have read this morning and the research plans of the research master students. Depending on the number of students we will ask four / five students to present a research proposal that is linked to the theme of literature, crisis and capitalism. This proposal will be discussed by the other students and the teachers; it will become the starting point for the essay that the students will be writing for this course.
Wednesday – Third day
On this day the students are free to work on their essay independently; they try to rewrite their research proposal and think about their methodology, corpus, etc
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OSL SEMINAR
LITERATURE IN/AND\OF CRISIS
January 26-27, 2012
This year’s OSL Graduate seminar will be devoted to the investigation of the theme “Literature in/and\of Crisis”. Since a couple of years our contemporary World society seems to be in a constant, if not to say permanent, state of crisis. This state of crisis can itself be further dissected into a multiplicity of crises. Whether it concerns the financial markets, global warming, famine and the distribution of food, the rise of populist politics, or the crisis in the arts and humanities, alarm bells go off as soon as the word “crisis” has been mentioned.
Nonetheless, the employment of the concept of crisis often goes without any thorough historical or theoretical elaboration or analysis of its meaning. That does not mean however that the application of the concept of crisis is a random one. Therefore it is precisely the aim of this intensive seminar to rethink the notion of crisis. A rethinking which is all the more pertinent as the examples mentioned above confirm. Perhaps crisis and critique have always been of mutual interdependence. And hence there may be a particular and distinguishing role for (literary) criticism in interpreting and understanding crises.
During two days the seminar will investigate questions such as: how do literature and scholarship provide symptomatologies and diagnoses of these crises? Could it be that the concept of crisis has a specific performativity of its own? What kinds of approaches to crises – historical, national and transnational, disciplinary and transdisciplinary – can we discern and develop? If both literature and the humanities offer unique and relevant responses to crises, then how can these responses help to fight the particular crisis that the Humanities have been facing? And how has the notion of crisis developed throughout the last two centuries and what are the consequences for its application today?
Under the guidance of Willem Schinkel (EUR), Arnold Labrie (UM), Léon Hanssen (UvT), Saskia Pieterse (UvA), Liesbeth Eelens (NSOB/EUR), and Thomas Vaessens (UvA) we will be exploring the history as well as the meaning and implications of crisis in/and/through/of literature.
