News & Events

Fall 2009

December 4, 2009

Keynote address by Professor Haun Saussy (Yale)

Discussants will include Yale faculty and graduate students.

You can find the Conference Program here

What is it about the possibility of interfacing with animals that maintains a hold on our imagination? Why does the Zoo offer itself as a metaphor for everything from riotous fun to abject chaos? Why have animals permeated and continue to pervade philosophical and literary discourses, and what is their function in these domains?

As an institution and a historical fact, the Zoo links ancient Egypt to medieval Europe, and the princely courts of China and India to the cultural aspirations of the modern metropolis. As a metaphor, it has been inscribed into everything from Biblical hermeneutics to "post-human" criticism. This conference invites the participants to roam the “Zoo” with the prospect of literary, historical, and allegorical discoveries. We welcome proposals on any literary genre, from any national literature, and from any historical period.

Papers might focus on, but are not limited to, the following topics:

Environmentalism -- History of the zoo -- Animals, Humans -- Noah's Ark -- Pets -- The child within -- World fairs and expositions as human zoos -- Animalistic metaphors -- Curiosity on display -- Evolution -- Darwin -- Animals and literature -- Animals, postcolonialism -- Extinction -- The animal and the metropolis -- The post-human society -- The prince and the pet -- Exoticism-- Dehumanization/animalization -- Animals real and symbolic

Spring 2009

THEORY OF THE LYRIC

a lecture by

Jonathan Culler
Class of 1916 Professor of English and Comparative Literature
Cornell University

January 20, 2009, 4:00 pm
Sudler Hall, William L. Harkness Hall
100 Wall Street

Reception to follow
451 College Street Basement, Room B-04

Spring 2008

THE ANDREW W. MELLON FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES DISTINGUISHED ACHIEVEMENT AWARD RECIPIENTS

            This year’s recipients of The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation’s Distinguished Achievement Awards have been chosen.  The awards are intended to underscore the decisive contributions the humanities make to the nation’s intellectual life.  Amounting to as much as $1.5 million each, the awards honor scholars who have made significant contributions to humanistic inquiry and enable them to teach and do research under especially favorable conditions while enlarging opportunities for scholarship and teaching at the academic institutions with which they are affiliated.

            In contrast to other notable awards that benefit individual recipients exclusively, the Distinguished Achievement Awards are designed to recognize the interdependence of scholars and their institutions.  Accordingly, while these grants honor the achievements of individuals, the funds that accompany them support institutional activities that will enhance both research and teaching and permit the recipients to deepen and extend their own scholarship.

            One of the three scholars selected this year is:

            PETER BROOKS, Sterling Professor of Comparative Literature at Yale University.  One of the leading literary critics of his generation, Brooks specializes in comparative literature with a focus on nineteenth- and twentieth-century French and English fiction.  He has made major contributions to these fields while connecting the work of literary studies to broader scholarly contexts including psychiatry, psychoanalysis and the law.  Brooks’ work reveals in new ways the importance of narrative in a variety of domains, not only in fiction, but also in legal and medical settings.  At Yale and elsewhere, he has succeeded in extending the reach and connectedness of the humanities through serving as the founding director of Yale’s Whitney Humanities Center and as head of the program in law and the humanities at the University of Virginia.  Beyond his own writings, Brooks is known for his intellectual generosity, especially his encouragement of younger scholars.  More broadly, Brooks has done much to communicate the interest and importance of the study of literature and the humanities to the professions and to readers beyond the academic community.