Yale Bulletin and Calendar

November 7, 2003|Volume 32, Number 10

Symposium will examine 'American Literary Globalism' throughout the centuries

The ways that American authors and their writings have been influenced by the literature of the wider world will be explored in a symposium being held on Friday, Nov. 14, at the Whitney Humanities Center, 53 Wall St.

Titled "American Literary Globalism," the event is designed to "explore the migration and translation of texts as an important feature of American literature, a phenomenon extending from the 17th century to the 21st," write the organizers of the symposium. They note that Ralph Waldo Emerson's translations of Dante's "Vita Nuova" and of Persian poets Hafiz and Saadi "point to the deep global roots of American Transcendentalism" and that there are "echoes of ancient Sanskrit texts" in Henry David Thoreau's arguments for civil disobedience and higher laws.

"As we move on to the 20th and 21st centuries, globalism becomes even more pronounced in American literature," note the organizers, citing the "reworking" of Asian, African and South American myths in the work of such authors as Maxine Hong Kingston, Paule Marshall and Leslie Silko.

"In short, 'globalism' serves as the broadest possible frame for American literature, bringing together authors across countries, across divisions of race and across the customary separation between poetry and prose," they note.

The symposium will feature two panels. Panelists for the morning session at 10 a.m. are Jonathan Arac of Columbia University, Homi Bhabha of Harvard University and Russ Castronovo of the University of Wisconsin at Madison. The afternoon session at 1:30 p.m. will feature Donald Pease of Dartmouth College, Joseph Roach of Yale and Doris Sommer of Harvard. A plenary discussion at 4 p.m. and a reception at 5 p.m. will conclude the program. A more detailed conference schedule can be found at www.yale.edu/whc/calendar.htm.

Papers presented at the symposium will be published in a special issue of the Emerson Society Quarterly (ESQ).

"American Literary Globalism" is free and open to the public. The event is sponsored by the Whitney Humanities Center, ESQ, Yale's Americanist Colloquium and Department of English, and the College of Liberal Arts at Washington State University.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Harold Koh is appointed as next Law School dean

Clinton asserts 'shared responsibilities' among nations . . .

'Women Mentoring Women' program launched

Budget plans for the coming year

Event to explore ethics of media coverage in wartime

Colleges' sustainable dining initiatives are focus of conference

Women astronauts will talk about their 'Place in Space'

Computer scientists to develop ways to protect privacy online

Exhibit looks at Robert Damora's '70 Years of Total Architecture'

Yale Rep show explores collision of politics and culture in America

Her native landscape inspires Irish writer's 'desperate themes'

DeStefano hopes 'game plan' will bring him to Olympics

Study: Recovery rates from childhood leukemia . . .

Memory-enhancing drugs may actually worsen . . .

Dr. Robert Arnstein, counselor to generations of students, dies

World-renowned oncologist Dr. Paul Calabresi passes away

Rare form of obsessive compulsive disorder linked to gene mutation

Older patients may not be prepared to receive diagnosis, study says

Symposium will examine 'American Literary Globalism' . . .

Koerner Center to showcase emeritus faculty member's works

Researchers sequence and analyze the DNA of an ancient parasite

Two books on slavery are winners of the Douglass Prize

United Way Campaign nears halfway mark in meeting its goal

Yale Books in Brief

Campus Notes