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Sabin Jeanmaire
University of Zurich
Abstract:
Polis and Institution: Timothy Findley’s Psychiatric Microcosm of Power Structures
Where and how do the popular and the political intersect? What role does literature play in the negotiation of power structures between them? In this paper I aim to tackle these questions from a Canadian perspective, through the lens of the influential 20th century author Timothy Findley. In his novel Headhunter (1993), set in a dystopian future version of Canadian society, he presents a mental health clinic as a special community in which the private and the political sphere intersect. In this institution, patients and psychiatrists are pitted against each other, and their interactions, which expose private traumata to the far more public eye of the therapists, are marked by corruption and abuse. As a microcosm of society, this clinic negotiates the power relationships between the popular and the political. The imposition of normative power to create sane and non-deviant members of the polis recalls the historical institutions of the residential schools where the private identity of First Nation children was radically eliminated to achieve assimilation and homogeneity. This national trauma, which has been described as the “Canadian holocaust,” lurks in the background of a novel which also makes a strong claim about literature and the act of reading: the perception of and potential resistance towards those abusive powers exercised by the representatives of the polis are epitomized in a crucial misreading which shows the power of language to reveal a hidden kernel of truth – seen through the eyes of a traumatized patient, the role of those in power is that of (a) “TheRapist.”
Bionote:
Sabin Jeanmaire is a research and teaching assistant to professors Elisabeth Bronfen and Barbara Straumann at the English Department of the University of Zurich. She holds both a BA (2010) and an MA (2013) degree in English Literature and Linguistics, as well as Spanish Literature and Linguistics, from the University of Zurich. She completed parts of her BA studies at the University of Valencia, Spain, and parts of her MA studies at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada. Her research interests include metafiction, adaptation, and psychoanalytic criticism. She wrote her MA thesis on metafictional elements in Ian McEwan’s Atonement, and is now working on her doctoral thesis on the Canadian author Timothy Findley, focusing on the topics of trauma and witnessing in his novels.
Janusz Kazmierczak
Adam Mickiewicz University
Abstract:
The Community of Writers at The University of Iowa and its Representation in The Accounts of The Polish Participants of The UI International Writing Program
Ever since the inception of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in the 1930s, year after year, the University of Iowa has hosted vibrant writers’ communities. These communities acquired a truly international dimension after the start of the International Writing Program in the year 1967. Among the over 1400 writers that the IWP has brought to the USA to this date, there have been over 50 Polish men and women of letters. Many of them, on return to Poland, published written accounts of their stay in the USA. It was the intention of the founders of the Program to create an international community of writers, centered on Iowa but bringing together present and past participants of the Program all over the world. The paper, based in part on archival research done in Iowa, investigates how and to what extent such a community has been built, under the auspices of the IWP, in Iowa and globally. Also, it discusses what representation this community has had in the accounts of the Polish participants of the Program. A leading theoretical concept, applied and tested in the discussion, will be the notion of communitas, as developed by Victor Turner.
Bionote:
Dr Janusz Kaźmierczak is an assistant professor at the Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznan, Poland. Among his research interests are the literary image of America in Poland, communist anti-Western propaganda in Poland, visual communication, and cultural theory. In 2015 he published the book Transatlantic Pilgrimages: Travel to America in the Writings of the Polish Participants of the University of Iowa International Writing Program. His articles have appeared in American, German, Polish, Portuguese and Romanian journals and edited collections. He co-edits the journal Polish-AngloSaxon Studies (Poznan), and is a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Comic Art (Philadelphia).
Xenia Knoesel
University of Oxford
Abstract:
The Role of Literature for Forming Normative Thoughts
For building communities, religious, ideological or philosophical thoughts have often played an important role. They provide a (seeming) connection to something greater, which has the power to unite individuals into one community. A (supposed) deeper understanding of the world and normative systems (and may they consist in the defiance of such normativity) provides a common direction for all individual lives, transcending the apparently weak contribution that each single person may make, into a larger picture of human worshipping, progress, dignity or whatever aim might be claimed to be morally justified. Throughout history, a normative framework has proven to be one of the strongest links to shape communities and many systems and ideologies have experimented with a variety of tools to strengthen the unified moral understanding of each member of the respective community. Art in general and literature in particular have been used to varying degrees in order to convey a deeper understanding of moral rules, an atmosphere to support their implementation, or role models to showcase their benefits. It might be helpful to take a look back on how different ideologies used literature as a means of communicating and strengthening their respective normative views, both in the US and in Europe, and to think about in how far we use these possibilities nowadays, in what is sometimes considered a post-ideological age. Seeing that normative systems have constituted such a fundamental role in most of history, this might lead us to attach a higher importance even to contemporary literature and its role for our society.
Bionote:
After my Abitur in 2013, I spent one year travelling and working on literature. From September 2014 to May 2015, I studied two semesters at WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management, receiving a scholarship from the German National Foundation. After four months of working in the finance industry, both in Frankfurt and New York City, I came back to working on literary and philosophical thoughts, independent from any university. In October 2016, I will start studying Philosophy, Politics and Economics at St. John’s College, Oxford University.
Yvonne Knop
Siegen University
Abstract:
Power through Apathy: America’s 1950s, the White Middle-Class, and a new National Character
The 1950s not only mark the historical moment when the United States gained global power, but also were a decade marked by extraordinary changes in the class structure. They brought the beginning of mass production and the white middle-class’ domestic isolation in the suburbs. Like no other community, the white middle-class shaped and defined what today is called the ‘Age of Anxiety’. Therefore, I will concentrate on the connection between the white American middle-class, its influence on class structures and race relations, as well as its significant role in American Politics in the 1950s. During these years, the political apathy and anxieties of the white middle-class helped to intensify the fear of a Soviet threat and the need for surveillance. Apart from that, the growth of suburbs and a growing consumerism shot the white middle-class off from the rest of America’s population, which, in turn, helped race issues to come to the boil again. To assess the previous mentioned points, I will first define the white American middle-class in sense of a community. Subsequently, the characteristics of the new suburban life, such as popular culture and religion, and the growing need for privacy and security will be addressed. Concluding, I will draw the connection between the white middle-class and Politics in the 1950s, and will discuss how and why exactly the white middle-class defined and shaped the national character of the 1950s, known today as the ‘Cold War Culture’.
Bionote:
Yvonne Knop is a senior teacher trainee for the English language and Social Sciences at the University of Siegen. Her main interests are in the fields of cultural, social and literary topics related to America’s 1950s. In February, she presented her paper on America’s 1950s, domestic surveillance, and the founding of the NSA in the student forum of an international conference at the Georg-August-University Göttingen. Currently, she is publishing her first monography, titled “Visions and Reflections of America. A close reading of Lawrence Ferlinghetti’s ‘I Am Waiting'”. After finishing her studies next year, she is planning to write her PhD in the field of American Studies.
Christina Maria Koch
University of Marburg
Abstract:
Who Are “We”? Dissent and Aggressive Rhetoric within Feminist Activist Communities
When we think of dissent and aggressive rhetoric in the context of progressive political movements, we tend to focus on movements’ relationships with their adversaries. When political movements are studied more closely, challenges to collective identity and mechanisms of dissent within groups come to the fore, a particular long runner being the history of the labor movement and “the” current Left (Polletta and Jasper; Polletta). Feminist theorists and activists of the last decades have been discussing vigorously issues of plurality, particularity, dissent and unity (versus homogeneity). Intersectional, postcolonial, and queer feminisms have been incisive in reformulations of feminist communities and struggles. Current discussions about “White Feminism” or “TERFs” (trans-exclusionary radical feminists) tend to be among the most heated in online or offline feminist communities. While some feminists appeal to civility and a common, unified struggle against anti-feminist agendas, other feminists criticize a homogenizing “we” and unmask “tone policing” and pleas for unity as oppressive mechanisms of privileged activists used to silence marginalized groups and abuse their energies. In this paper I will combine perspectives on emotions/affect from social movement and social media studies with current feminist theories and activist discourses concerned with emotions/affect in communal activism. In scholarship and selected discourse within online activist communities such as Guerilla Feminism, I will trace if and how academics and activists try to answer questions that translate well to many other political movements: Can feminists knit larger and stronger communities without sacrificing the “feminist killjoy” (Ahmed) and the reclaimed position of the “angry black woman” (Griffin; see McKenzie et al.) for pragmatic political concerns? Can there be a #lesstoxicfeminism (Thelandersson) and a cautious “we” that does not imply movement-internal oppression?
Works Cited:
Ahmed, Sara. “Killing Joy: Feminism and the History of Happiness.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 35.3 (2010): 571-94. Web. 12 Feb. 2016.
Griffin, Rachel Alicia. “I AM an Angry Black Woman: Black Feminist Autoethnography, Voice, and Resistance.” Women’s Studies in Communication 35.2 (2012): 138-57. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
McKenzie, Mia, et al. Black Girl Dangerous. blackgirldangerous.org, 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2016.
Polletta, Francesca, and James M. Jasper. “Collective Identity and Social Movements.” Annual Review of Sociology 27 (2001): 283-305. Web. 14 May 2013.
Polletta, Francesca. Freedom Is an Endless Meeting: Democracy in American Social Movements. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2002. Print.
Thelandersson, Fredrika. “A Less Toxic Feminism: Can the Internet Solve the Age Old Question of How to Put Intersectional Theory into Practice?” Feminist Media Studies 14.3 (2014): 527-30. Web. 28 Mar. 2016.
Bionote:
Christina Maria Koch is a PhD candidate in American Studies at Philipps University of Marburg, Germany, where she studies how medium-specific traits of graphic illness memoirs shape representations of illness experiences and their sociocultural dimensions. Her research interests include comics studies, gender studies/feminist theories, political iconographies and social movement studies, and the intersections of literature and medicine.
Alicia Krömer
University of Vienna
Abstract: Social Influence and Impact on the Collective Memory of the Native Residential Schools in Canada: 1867-1996
The Canadian Native Residential school system was first established and funded by the Federal Government of Canada in cooperation with the Catholic and Protestant Churches of Canada in 1867, and continued until the final school closure in 1996. During this time, 150,000 Aboriginal children were placed in a network of 125 schools across Canada. Many former students claim they lost their cultural identity there, reporting physical and sexual abuse from the school staff. It has been cited that at least 3,000 children died while in attendance. In the late 1990s, numerous Native Canadians initiated lawsuits against the Canadian government due to the widespread accounts of abuse at the schools. In response, the Canadian government set up compensation agreements with former students, culminating in the Canadian Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The paper provides a brief historical overview of the residential schools and the government response. The theory of collective memory by Maurice Halbwachs frames the research design. The study also examines the social phenomenon through the lens of a selection of relevant interview partners. This is done in order to reconstruct the thoughts and opinions that the interview partners have on this subject (including Native and non-Native Canadians). The study inquiries into the perceived negative intergenerational impacts the schools may have caused as well as its possible contributing factor to the lower social outcomes for Natives (in contrast to non- Native Canadians). The paper also examines the potential for Canada to act as a role model for other countries in dealing with postcolonial histories of oppression, acknowledging the impact of such a history on Indigenous communities, as well as reflect on the role of politics of remembrance in building bridges between past and present for future generations to promote more tolerant, multicultural, and inclusive societies.
Bionote:
Alicia Krömer is from London, Canada. She has completed a BA in English Literature at the University of British Columbia in 2007 and graduated in 2010 with a Masters in European Studies from the University of Graz in cooperation with the University of Barcelona and the European Research Institute in Bolzano, Italy. Her Master’s thesis focused on the Indigenous rights of Sami and First Nations. Since 2012, she has been working on her doctoral thesis in the department of political science at the University of Vienna. Her thesis explores the social influence and impact on the collective memory of the Native Residential schools in Canada (1867-1996).
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