Goldsmiths - University of London

presents the first GLITS Graduate Conference

Mindful of Otherness: Literature and Ethics Graduate Conference

13 June 2009
Goldsmiths, University of London

Plenary speaker: Robert Eaglestone

‘To respond to the demand of the literary work as the demand of the other is to attend to it as a unique event whose happening is a call, a challenge, an obligation: understand how little you understand me.’ (Derek Attridge)

“All ethical predication based on recognition of the other should be purely and simply abandoned.’ (Alain Badiou)

The conception of ethics as ‘responsibility to otherness’ has dominated literary criticism for the last forty years. With this approach, alertness to the opacity of meaning in the text provokes respect for that which is unknown in the other person. This view of ethics is oriented around the category of the other - a category that is being met with new resistance.

Prominent voices are beginning to contest the ‘ethics of otherness’ in the name of ethics based on universal truths and identity. Where it was once radical for literary studies to affirm the dissolution of subjectivity, the stability of the subject is now being upheld. Where ‘particularity’ was once in vogue, the ‘universal’ is now the buzzword. The ‘impossibility of truth’ is gradually being eclipsed by ‘Truth’ claims. What does this backlash against literary theory mean for the ethics of literature? Why is it taking place now? How will it change the way we read literary texts?

The conference looks at how recent critiques of ‘otherness’ have affected both the reading and writing of literature. Contributions on both sides of the debate are examined: those mindful of the otherness of literature in the sense of ‘seeking to protect it’ and those displaying a mindful ‘wariness’ of otherness.