[Discussion] CFP: Culture and Irreversibility (9/15/04; NEMLA, 3/31/05-4/2/05)

[sule tarakcioglu]

Call for Papers for a panel entitled =93Culture and Irreversibility=94
NEMLA Convention, March 31 - April 2, 2005, Cambridge, Massachusetts

What are the ways in which one knows that one cannot go back?  Numerous=20=

attempts have been made to characterize the modes of intelligent=20
experience in the modern period.  These have included efforts to locate=20=

the conceptual apparatus that underlie apperception, metaphors that=20
lend narrative meaning to experience, or socio-cultural structures that=20=

enable the detection of historical significance, to name a few.  Thus,=20=

for example, we can look to Immanuel Kant=92s interest in the schemata =
of=20
understanding, Hayden White=92s examinations of historiography=92s =
tropic=20
maneuvers, and Walter Benjamin=92s focus on the dialectical images=20
through which history appears to agents as various categorizations of=20
human experience.  Other conceptualizations have sought to reveal a=20
messianism or other teleology subtending human experience, a=20
deterministic structure or an underlying inevitability.  This panel is=20=

dedicated to building on this accumulation of criticism.  Work remains=20=

to be done on the sense, knowledge, or experience of irreversibility. =20=

We understand this to be different from nostalgia, which, in deriving=20
its charge from the promise, even if ultimately deferred, of recovery,=20=

owes some allegiance to utopianism.  If the utopian posits a possible=20
future to underwrite present striving, this panel is devoted to=20
examining experience from the perspective of the rearview mirror.
We invite papers that contribute to an analysis of the experience of=20
irretrievability, irreparability, irremediability, irrevocability, or=20
any other form of irreversibility.  We understand the purview of this=20
panel to span the concerns of several disciplines, including=20
philosophy, ethics, literature, history, biology, physics, and=20
sociology, to name a few.
Questions, problems, or perspectives that might be considered include,=20=

but are by no means limited to, the following:
1.	What are the outlines or history of the theory of =
irreversibility?
2.	How is the experience of irretrievability represented in =
culture?
3.	How does recognition of irrevocability force a =
reconceptualization=20
of the experiences of =93looking backward=94 or =93looking forward=94 =
from=20
their respective meanings within a progressive understanding of=20
history?
4.	What sort of challenge (if any) does irreversibility pose to=20
teleology?
5.	Are liberal, reformist, or revolutionary politics compatible =
with a=20
theory of history as irremediability?  Or is such a theory of history=20
fundamentally conservative?
6.	Which authors would be included in a literary history of=20
irreversibility?
7.	What does a morality or ethics grounded in the recognition of=20
historical irreversibility=97i.e., of choices or decisions=97look like?
8.	Is the worldview that attends a conviction of irreversibility=20
inherently pessimistic, or can it be optimistic?
9.	What role does the concept of irreversibility play in nostalgia =
or=20
mourning?  What is the role of memory?
300-word proposals for papers or presentations are requested by 15=20
September and should be emailed to Ben Schreier at=20
formstone@mindspring.com.  Panelists must be current members of NEMLA=20
or join by December 1, 2004.
Benjamin Schreier
formstone@mindspring.com



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