“Productions of Presence: An Interdisciplinary Workshop”
November 8, 1:00p.m.–7:00p.m., State Room West, IMU
November 9, 10:00a.m.–12:30p.m.; 2:30p.m.–4:30p.m., Distinguished Alumni Room, IMU
For workshop schedule, please click here
For the past three years, the Department of Germanic Studies has run workshops--essentially small conferences--that constitute in-depth explorations of issues previously pursued in one of the departmental graduate courses. These workshops have included both scholars from outside IU and from the faculty in Bloomington, and—most importantly—IU graduate students, and have thereby allowed for a host of exchanges: between IU faculty and scholars beyond Bloomington, between students in Germanic Studies and IU faculty from other disciplines, and between a number of disciplines themselves. They also provide an opportunity for students to present a paper that is longer than the kind they might encounter at national conferences, and for their fellow students attending the workshop to learn from the experience as well. Because the workshop constitutes a broadening of issues pursued in a course in Germanic Studies, student participation will be limited to students from that department, while faculty participants will be solely scholars from other disciplines: Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht (Comparative Literature/Critical Theory, Stanford), Lawrence Kramer (Musicology/English, Fordham), Joan Hawkins (Film Studies), and Linda Charnes (English, IUB).
In fall 2007, Marc Weiner directed an entry-level graduate course (G563) entitled: “Productions of Presence, Productions of Meaning: The 19th Century.” The course was designed to serve two purposes: 1) to introduce students to a variety of issues and phenomena of the 19th century; and 2) to engage with a recent book by Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Production of Presence: What Meaning Cannot Convey (Stanford: Stanford UP, 2004) around which investigations of the 19th-century material were organized. The purview of the G563 course was the 19th century, but that will not necessarily be the focus of the workshop; the topic it was based on, however, will constitute the center around which the various papers and discussions will unfold.
In Production of Presence: What Meaning Cannot Convey, Gumbrecht argues that the emphasis philosophical and literary studies have placed on the decoding of a signified (the act of the interpretation of a work’s “meaning,” which can only be accessed through various kinds of exegesis) has led to the devaluation of the physical, sensate impressions vouchsafed by the signifier, by the “presence” of the aesthetic minutiae of the work of art. In his plea for a recuperation of the material of the signifier, Gumbrecht has argued for an appreciation of the experience of that material not in place of, but in addition to the more traditional emphasis we have been taught to place on the act of interpretation as the working out of (a purportedly privileged, superior) hidden meaning. That traditional emphasis has become so pervasive that we often do not even reflect upon it, as suggested in the vocabulary with which we describe what we do: We speak of analyzing the meaning “within” a work or of finding the principal concern (of an author, an ideology, a culture, or a time period) “beneath” a text, and we learn and teach others how to “interpret” a work by viewing it through a number of methodologies with the goal of arriving at some meaning that only the highly trained and skilled can find. In doing so, Gumbrecht argues, we have come to ignore the material particularity of the work under investigation, as well as the individual aesthetic experience that that particular materiality instills in us.
The workshop is intended to both use, and in so doing to test, these arguments through discussions of complementary or competing theories, and of works of art and aesthetic experience, as well as to view Gumbrecht’s points themselves as objects of inquiry, and to do so from the vantage point of a number of academic fields. The idea is to see in what ways, and to what ends, consideration of the “stuff” the work is comprised of and of our interaction with it can be included in a “legitimate” discussion of aesthetic experience, and to see if and/or in what ways doing so would enrich our interaction with aesthetic works in the academy. Some of the questions to be asked may include (but of course need not be limited to): Are exegesis, as traditionally understood in the humanities, and consideration of its materiality mutually exclusive? If so, is that the case owing to the nature of interaction with the work of art or to the academic institution in which analysis has been privileged (the latter case constituting Gumbrecht’s argument)? What does consideration of aesthetic materiality add to an appreciation of aesthetic experience? Can the subjective appreciation of aesthetic materiality be communicated in a fashion commensurate with that of a purportedly more objective analysis? Are some kinds of aesthetic works and of aesthetic experience more suited to a discussion of such issues than others? Is this the case with works from different historical periods or cultures? Papers might deal with fairly abstract discussions such as these, or focus on a given work of art or kind of aesthetic experience that may highlight such issues. (In fact, most papers will do precisely that.) Presenters need not agree with Gumbrecht’s thesis; indeed, debate about his argument is one of the goals of the workshop.
As stated above, these workshops are smaller than conferences, and generally begin in mid- to late afternoon on one day and continue through the following day, which will be the case with this workshop as well. Professor Gumbrecht will present the opening lecture; each of the four sessions will be comprised of one faculty member and one graduate student. Members of the Germanic Studies faculty will serve as Chairs of the sessions.
Co-organizers:
- Marc A. Weiner
- Professor of Germanic Studies
- Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature,
- Communication and Culture, and Cultural Studies
- Ballantine Hall 644
- Phone: 5-2033
- E-mail address: weiner@indiana.edu
- Adjunct Professor of Comparative Literature,
- Joan Hawkins
- Associate Professor of Communication and Culture
- Adjunct Professor of American Studies,
- Comparative Literature, and Cultural Studies
- 800 E. Third St.
- Phone: 5-1548
- E-mail address: jchawkin@indiana.edu
- Adjunct Professor of American Studies,
