Theorizing 2009-2010 ~ Department of Comparative Literature and Literary Theory UPenn

Next Lecture ~ Nov. 5, 2009
6:00 pm ~ Kelly Writer's House

"Atlantic Speculations: Hegel, Liberia"

David Kazanjian

Professor Kazanjian's talk will form part of his next monograph, which aims to make the case for a speculative approach to the archives of the 19th century Atlantic world. Taking Susan Buck-Morss's Hegel, Haiti, and Universal History (2009) as both an inspiration and a cautionary tale, David will try to describe ways in which a positivist approach to the archive forecloses attention to the period's uneven, quotidian efforts to improvise with freedom.

David Kazanjian is an Associate Professor of English here at the University of Pennsylvania. He has published widely on colonialism, imperialism and nationalism in the early national and antebellum; he has also published extensively on the cultural politics of the North American-Armenian diaspora and co-edited (with David Eng) Loss: The Politics of Mourning (2003). He is a member of the editorial collective of Social Text, and has been an active advocate and supporter of community organization in the university.