April 30, 2004 at the Newberry Library
May 1, 2004 at the University of Chicago
A symposium at the Newberry Library and the University of Chicago sponsored by the University of Chicago's Center for Latin American Studies and the Franke Institute for the Humanities at the University of Chicago, the Norman Wait Harris Fund of the Center for International Studies at the University of Chicago, the Newberry Library's Center for Renaissance Studies, and the Departments of English Language and Literatures and Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago.
Rationale
This symposium aims to provide a forum for scholars from a variety of fields to reflect critically on the benefits as well as the costs of comparative work, a discussion that has been surprisingly absent from the current drive for more hemispheric and inclusive approaches to the colonial Americas under the rubric of American Studies or Atlantic Studies. The benefits of comparative work are often presented as self-evident, but the costs can be weighed in the solidification of traditional canons and taxonomies, in the collapsing of a complex and historically specific corpus of texts into a transcultural genre, or in facile comparisons between colonialisms motivated by attempts to rank the relative cruelty of various imperial powers at the expense of sustained investigation into the lives and writings of peoples subjected to cruelty.
We hope to use this opportunity to reflect on a series of related historical and theoretical questions: How have comparative studies of Euro-American colonialism enhanced or diminished our understandings of the histories and literatures of indigenous peoples and of Africans in the Americas? Do theoretical vocabularies and analytical models developed for particular settings cross borders as effectively or with as much difficulty as the texts and peoples we study? How do historical conditions of local and national archive- and canon-formation promote or impair our ability to create meaningful comparisons? How does the recent interest in comparative colonialism depend upon or depart from the established historiography of the "Atlantic World" or the emerging analysis of empire? Ultimately, whose interests are or might be served by a hemispheric literary or cultural history of the Americas?
Participants
Rolena Adorno (Spanish and Portuguese, Yale University)
Ralph Bauer (English, University of Maryland)
Joanna Brooks (English, University of Texas-Austin)
Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra (History, SUNY-Buffalo/Huntington Library)
Lúcia Helana Costigan (Spanish and Portuguese, Ohio State University)
Roland Greene (Comparative Literature and English, Stanford University)
Sandra Gustafson (English, University of Notre Dame)
Tamar Herzog (History, University of Chicago)
Agnes Lugo-Ortiz (Romance Languages, University of Chicago)
Janice Knight (English, University of Chicago)
Stephanie Merrim (Comparative Literature and Hispanic Studies, Brown University)
Walter Mignolo (Romance Studies and Cultural Anthropology, Duke University)
Dana Nelson (English, University of Kentucky)
Francisco Ortega (Spanish and Portuguese, University of Wisconsin-Madison)
Susan Scott Parrish (English, University of Michigan)
José Rabasa (Spanish and Portuguese, University of California-Berkeley)
Daniel K. Richter (History, University of Pennsylvania)
LaVonne Ruoff (English, University of Illinois-Chicago)
Gordon Sayre (English, University of Oregon)
David Shields (English and History, University of South Carolina)
Eric Slauter (English, University of Chicago)
Lisa Voigt (Romance Languages, University of Chicago)
Carla Zecher (Center for Renaissance Studies, Newberry Library)
PROVISIONAL PROGRAM
Friday, April 30
The Newberry Library, 60 W. Walton Street
9:00 Continental breakfast
9:45 Welcome: Carla Zecher (Center for Renaissance Studies, Newberry Library)
10:00-12:00 SESSION 1
Chair: Tamar Herzog (History, University of Chicago)
Some Caveats about the "Atlantic" Paradigm
Jorge Cañizares-Esguerra (History, SUNY-Buffalo/Huntington Library)
The Problem of the Background in Comparative Studies
José Rabasa (Spanish and Portuguese, University of California-Berkeley)
Comment: Dana Nelson (English and Social Theory, University of Kentucky)
12:00-1:30 Lunch
1:30-4:00 SESSION 2
Chair: LaVonne Ruoff (English, University of Illinois-Chicago)
Literary History and the Challenge of Comparative Colonial American Studies
Ralph Bauer (English, University of Maryland)
Comparative Colonialisms and the Indigenous Intellectual Histories Imperative
Joanna Brooks (English, University of Texas-Austin)
Forgotten Subjects and Texts in Comparative Colonial (Latin) American Studies
Lucia Helena Costigan (Spanish and Portuguese, Ohio State University)
Comment: Francisco Ortega (Spanish and Portuguese, University of Wisconsin- Madison)
4:00-5:00 Reception
Saturday, May 1
University of Chicago, Franke Institute for the Humanities, Regenstein Library, 1100 East 57th Street
9:30 Continental breakfast
10:00-12:00 SESSION 3
Chair: Janice Knight (English, University of Chicago)
Who Reads? Who Cites? A Strategy for Teaching Colonial Literary Comparisons
Rolena Adorno (Spanish and Portuguese, Yale University)
The Garden of Forking Paths: Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz in Comparative Contexts
Stephanie Merrim (Comparative Literature and Hispanic Studies, Brown University)
Comment: David Shields (English and History, University of South Carolina)
12:00-1:00 Lunch
1:00-3:00 SESSION 4
Chair: Agnes Lugo-Ortiz (Romance Languages, University of Chicago)
African Magi, Slave Poisoners: 18th-century Topographies of Knowledge from New England to the Caribbean
Susan Scott Parrish (English, University of Michigan)
The Death of Serpent Piqué and the Value of Life at Natchez
Gordon Sayre (English, University of Oregon)
Comment: Daniel K. Richter (History, University of Pennsylvania)
3:00-3:30 Coffee break
3:30-5:30 SESSION 5
Chair: Sandra Gustafson (English, University of Notre Dame)
Comparative Semantics and the Colonial World
Roland Greene (Comparative Literature and English, Stanford University)
'Literature' and the Imperial/Colonial Differences
Walter Mignolo (Romance Studies and Cultural Anthropology, Duke University)
Comment: Eric Slauter (English, University of Chicago) and Lisa Voigt (Romance Languages, University of Chicago)
5:30-7:00 Reception
For more information, contact Lisa Voigt or Eric Slauter at the University of Chicago.
While there is no fee to attend this conference, participants should register in advance. To register, please call the Center for Renaissance Studies at 312.255.3514, or send an e-mail to renaissance@newberry.org.
Funds are available for graduate students and faculty of Consortium institutions to travel to the Newberry Library to attend the symposium. If you have any questions, please contact the Center for Renaissance Studies.