News & Events

The Graduate Students of the Yale
Comparative Literature Department present

THE GLOBAL 1990s:
Looking Back on the End of History

Friday January 20th
and Saturday, January 21st, 2012

Whitney Humanities Center
53 Wall Street, New Haven

FRIDAY, JANUARY 20th
5:30pm Roundtable: “Culture Wars”
WHC 208

A group discussion on 90s arts, literature and popular culture -- as well as the cultural theories of postmodernity that emerged during the decade. Featuring: AS Hamrah (N+1); Katie Trumpener (Yale); and Dudley Andrew (Yale). Moderated by Soren Forsberg (Yale).

7:00pm Opening Presentation
“From the Cold War to the War on Terror”
WHC Auditorium

Conference organizers Joshua Sperling and Daniel Fairfax present an AV retrospective of the decade that began with the fall of the Berlin Wall and came to a close with the September 11th attacks.

7:30pm Special 35mm screening of Chungking Express (1994)
WHC Auditorium

One of the defining works of nineties cinema, Wong Kar Wai’s groundbreaking film captures both the exuberance and heartache of its characters -- lost-souls adrift in a postmodern Hong Kong of late night ‘express’ restaurants and recycled American kitsch. Brought to America by Quentin Tarantino, Chungking Express announced the talents of its Australian-born Director of Photography, Christopher Doyle, who has since become one of the most admired cinematographers at work today.
This new celluloid print travels all the way from Toronto to explode in vivid color on our very own big screen.

SATURDAY, JANUARY 21st
All Saturday panels will be held in WHC 208

9:00am Coffee and Snacks
WHC Second Floor Rotunda

9:15am Panel 1: “Boredom and Excitement in the 1990s”
Moderated by Kevin Holden (Yale)

“Coming Up: The Ecstasy Generation in UK Literature”
Joshua Sperling (Yale)

“The Art of Slummin’ It: ‘Slum Tourism’ and the Backpacking Fringe”
Merve Emre (Yale)

“One’s Boredom and 1990s Pop Literature”
Florian Fuchs (Yale)

11:15am Panel II: “Repressed Histories of Violence”
Moderated by Tara Menon (Yale)

“Revisiting the Haitian Revolution at the End of History: Madison Smartt Bell’s All Souls Rising and the U.S. Political Novel of Identity in the 1990s”
Gina Pugliese (Brandeis)

“Globalization and Detritus in Bolaño’s 2666”
Nick Gamso (CUNY)

“Eine Frage der Perspektive: Optics and Memory in W.G. Sebald”
Moira Weigel (Yale)

1:00pm Lunch
WHC Second Floor Rotunda

2:00pm Panel III: “East/West: Upturned Cultures”
Moderated by Aleksandar Stevic (Yale)

“Global vs Local Identity: How Fashion Magazines shaped the imagination of the Unfashionable World after the End of History”
Michael Skafidas (CUNY)

“The End of Anthropocentrism: Oleg Kulik’s Zoomorphic Performances, 1994-97”
Tatsiana Zhurauliova (Yale)

“The Berlin Essay Films of Robert Kramer and Chris Marker”
Nathaniel Davis (Penn)

4:00pm Panel IV: “Neoliberal Twilight”
Moderated by Ariel Bardi (Yale)

“Point Break: Riding the Wave of Post-Cold War Neoliberalism”
Grant Wiedenfeld (Yale)

“1990s Dystopian Playfulness in Dial HISTORY: A Televised History of Terrorism”
Isabel Sobral Campos (CUNY)

“Badiou’s Ethics and Neoliberal Human Rights Discourse”
Daniel Fairfax (Yale)

6:00pm Keynote Address: Prof. John Mackay (Yale)
Introduced by Annie Pfeifer (Yale)

________________________________________

Sponsored by The Department of Comparative Literature, The Dean’s Fund, and the Whitney Humanities Center

CONGRATULATIONS!

Professor Dudley Andrew
R. Seldon Rose Professor of Film and Comparative Literature
has won
The Distinguished Career Achievement Award for 2011
from the
Society for Cinema and Media Studies

Professor Roberto González Echevarría
Sterling Professor Hispanic and Comparative Literature
has been awarded a
National Humanities Medal
by
President Barack Obama

Richard Maxwell (Senior Lecturer, Comparative Literature) died at home in New Haven on July 20, 2010 of a brain tumor.

A memorial fund in his name will support exceptional student work in Comparative Literature. Donations can be sent to: Yale University, c/o Alison Coleman, P.O. Box 2038, New Haven, CT 06520-2038.

Please visit the following sites for Richard's numerous obituaries:

Family Obituary
Yale Daily News Memorial Piece
The Independent (UK)

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