2000 Conference

The English Institute 2000

59th Session Friday - Sunday September 15 - 17, 2000 Yenching Auditorium 2 Divinity Ave Harvard University Please note the new conference location: Yenching Auditorium, 2 Divinity Ave Click here for map Click here for lodging The 59th annual meeting of the English Institute explored new work under four headings, a topic, a genre, an author, and a text for group discussion. The topic panel, Compassion, marked out a domain of attachment, of love, ethics, aesthetics, and politics. The discussion of genre explored the formation of cultural categories, the subject, and sexuality in Renaissance prose. Rethinking the sympathy/compassion for which George Eliot is famous, the author panel engaged, in different ways, the renewed interest in ethics, affect, and the novel. Adorno's "Resignation," a brief essay, in which he reflects on the responsibilities of intellectuals, was the subject of the roundtable discussion. Participants were encouraged to re-read Theodor Adorno's essay "Resignation" (published in Critical Models: Interventions and Catchwords, 1998). FRIDAY 9:30 a.m. Lee Edelman, Tufts University "Compassion's Compulsion" Compassion 11:00 a.m. Candace Vogler, University of Chicago "Much of Madness and More of Sin: Compassion, for Ligeia" Compassion 2:00 p.m. John Guillory, New York University "The Bachelor State: On Marriage and the Single Life in Bacon's 'New Atlantis'" Renaissance Prose 3:30 p.m. Laurie Shannon, Duke University "Prose Tails" Renaissance Prose 5:30 p.m. Reception Barker Center-Thompson Room SATURDAY 9:30 a.m. Peggy Phelan, New York University "The Compassion of Andy Warhol" Compassion 11:00 a.m. Lisa Jardine, University of London "Textual Therapies: Dosing the Ailing Subject" Renaissance Prose 2:00 p.m. Carolyn Williams, Rutgers University "Moving Pictures" George Eliot 3:30 p.m. Mary Ann O'Farrell, Texas A&M University "Charity Work" George Eliot 5:00 p.m. Members Meeting   SUNDAY 9:30 a.m. Neil Hertz, The Johns Hopkins University "Fatal Compassion" George Eliot 11:00 a.m. Asha Varadharajan and Cornel West will lead a discussion of Adorno's "Resignation" Program director Peter Stallybrass The Supervising Committee welcomes your ideas for next year's topics and speakers. Please send suggestions to committee members either by e-mail (englinst@fas.harvard.edu) or in writing prior to the beginning of the 2000 conference. The English Institute The Humanities Center Harvard University Barker Center 12 Quincy Street Cambridge, MA 02138