Critical Perspectives on Wars, Classes, & Empires "Death's Dream Kingdom: the American Culture after 911"
Speaker: Walter Davis About the Speaker: Walter Davis is a professor of English at the Ohio State University. His publications include _Deracination: Historicity, Hiroshima, and the Tragic Imperative_ (2001), _The Holocaust Memorial: A Play About Hiroshima_ (2001), _Inwardness and Existence: Subjectivity in/and Hegel, Heidegger, Marx, and Freud_ (1989), and _Get the Guests: Psychoanalysis, Modern American Drama, and the Audience_ (1994). Date: Thursday, February 28 Time: 5:00 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Location: 115 Stillman, OSU, 1947 College Rd., Columbus, OH What if the most important questions about the attacks on the Pentagon and the World Trade Center as historical Events transcend the terms of the current debate and the underlying framework it serves? What if the true function of the dominant system of rules of inquires, be they ethical or historical, is to prevent us from even attempting other, deeper inquiries, by plunging us into "that dream-state in which you run without moving from a terror in which you cannot believe toward a safety in which you have no faith" (Absalom, Absalom!)? What if "911," like Hiroshima, is uniquely revelatory of all that we do not know - and do not want to know - about our culture? What if, instead of following the dominant system of rules, we approached history as a reality - and a discipline - in which we must risk ourselves utterly? What if we dared to internalize an experience that shatters the economy of ideas and beliefs on which "the American identity" depends? "To articulate the past historically does not mean to recognize it 'the way it really was' (Ranke). It means to seize hold of a memory as it flashes up at a moment of danger" (Walter Benjamin, "Theses on the Philosophy of History"). Sponsors: the Student International Forum and Social Welfare Action Alliance. OSU Campus Map: <www.osu.edu/map/linkbuildings/stillmanhall.html>. Calendar of Events: <www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>. For more info, contact Yoshie Furuhashi at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or 614-668-6554; or Keith Kilty at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> or 614-292-7181. Download the flyer for the teach-in at <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/death.doc>. Download the flyer for other upcoming SIF/SWAA events at <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar8.doc>. -- Yoshie * Calendar of Events in Columbus: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html> * Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html> * Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/> * Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>
