ACLA 2006 Annual Meeting: The Human and Its Others

How can an anthropological approach to cultural artifacts better enable us to perceive the fundamental structures and mechanisms that underlie social practices? To what extent are primitive or archaic rituals still present in modern or “advanced” cultures? Does the field of “cultural studies” as it is currently constituted presuppose an anthropological dimension (i.e., ethnography etc.)? It is often said that the primary purpose of literature or art is to represent the “human condition.” What does this mean, anthropologically speaking? How can a generative analysis of culture yield insights into the function of religion, art and politics in today’s world? This interdisciplinary seminar will attempt to address and debate these types of questions. Any contributions that either use or dialogue with an anthropological approach to literary or cultural studies are welcome. Those who draw on philosophical or psychological perspectives are also encouraged to submit papers.

Seminar sponsored by the e-journal Anthropoetics.

Friday, March 24

Joshua Jones, Fordham University
“Emily Bronte’s Trapdoor: History and the Originary Metaphor in Wuthering Heights”
Allison Crumly, University of California, Los Angeles
“‘An Improbable Fiction’: Rethinking the Scapegoat in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night”
Séverine Martin, Columbia University
“Anthropoetic ‘Occasions’ in Mallarmé”
Adam Katz, Quinnipiac University
“The Mosaic Revelation in Shulamith Hareven’s Thirst: The Desert Trilogy”

Saturday, March 25

Nathan Henne, University of California, Santa Barbara
“Filtering K’iche’ Poetics: Anthropology and the Popol Vuh as Literature”
Emad Mirmotahari, University of California, Los Angeles
“The (IM)possibility of African Philosophy”
Stephen Gardner, University of Tulsa
“Anthropology, Aesthetics, and Philosophy of History in Hegel and Marx”
Eric Gans, University of California, Los Angeles
“Realism, Literary and Cinematic”

Sunday, March 26

Blandine Mitaut, Emory University
“‘Le singe est l’avenir de l’homme’: Henri Michaux’s New Anthropology”
Bican Polat, Johns Hopkins University
“Anthropology and Experimentation: A Unique Practice of Experimenting with the Socio-Cultural Phenomena”
William Poulin-Deltour, Middlebury College
“Where are the ‘feminists’ in ‘French feminism’?”
Robert Doran, Middlebury College
“Ritual and Sacrifice in the Films of Jean Renoir”