Comparative Literature 691EA - S- Literary Ethics/Affects

Is the humanistic drive at the heart of liberal thought, both celebrated and problematized by Edward Said, a fundamentally conservative impulse? What are the ethics of reading literature in the neoliberal age? And what is the relationship between ethics and affects? Approaching these questions in the spirit of Said's democratic humanism, this graduate seminar will explore ethical criticism ("From Leavis to Levinas") and adjacent concepts (e.g. cultural memory, perpetrator trauma, the liberal discourse of empathy) in the wake of histories of settler colonialism and racial capitalism. Key to our inquiry will be the place of genocide in philosophical thought. In this vein, we will read exciting recent work that conceptualizes Emmanuel Levinas and his primary themes (the other, justice, hope, hospitality, forgiveness) in conversation with major thinkers of postcolonialism and philosophies of liberation, including Frantz Fanon, Enrique Dussel, and Said himself. The course will progress towards a consideration of affect and affect theory as a decolonizing move for the ethical. Considering the work of Sara Ahmed and others, we will bring Levinas' "lived embodiment" into dialogue with concepts such as affective economies, intensities, and structures of feeling. We will conclude our inquiry in the realm of critical pedagogy. While our literary interludes will primarily focus on Arabic and Hebrew literatures, we may also read works from other linguistic traditions. Assignments are designed with professionalization in mind: students will prepare concise weekly responses, an academic book review, two presentations, and a conference paper that can be expanded into an article or dissertation chapter. Theoretical readings may include texts by Sara Ahmed, Theodor Adorno, Hannah Arendt, Judith Butler, Enrique Dussel, Frantz Fanon, Paolo Freire, Gil Hochberg, Dominique LaCapra, Emmanuel Levinas, Nelson Maldonado-Torres, Raya Morag and Edward Said.