In her forthcoming book Being, Time, Bios: Capitalism and Ontology, Kiarina Kordela’s psychoanalytically inflected readings of the history of philosophy prompt a a redefinition of biopolitics. In place of Foucault’s formulation that biopolitics is “the administration of bodies and the calculated management of life” she proposes to think “the administration and management of the subject’s relation to mortality and immortality, as a compensation for the loss of eternity.”
InterCcECT is delighted to present a miniseminar with Professor Kordela, Monday 9 April at 4pm, at the UIC Institute for the Humanities (Stevenson Hall, 701 S. Morgan St, lower level). We’ll be discussing her article “(Psychoanalytic) Biopolitics and Bioracism,” which she has generously made available here.
Mark your calendars now for two other special events presented by InterCcECT this spring, a workshop on the origins of aesthetic philosophy with Viv Soni, 5pm 10 May, and a talk on Deleuze by Tom Eyers, 5pm 4 June. To propose or announce events, including reading groups, performances, and other experiments, contact us .
We hope to see you soon, perhaps next week at Nancy Fraser’s lecture and seminar, “Theorizing the Crisis of Capitalism in the 21st Century.”
the psychoanalytic supplement
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Everything is Production
“For the real truth of the matter – the glaring, sober truth that resides in delirium – is that there is no such thing as relatively independent spheres or circuits: production is immediately consumption and a recording process, without any sort of mediation, and the recording process and consumption directly determine production, though they do so within the production process itself. Hence everything is production: production of productions, of actions and of passions; productions of recording processes, of distributions and of co-ordinates that serve as points of reference; productions of consumptions, of sensual pleasures, of anxieties, and of pain.”
In preparation for our very special production by Alberto Toscano on 1 March, “Desiring Abstraction: The Place of Capital in Post ’68 French Thought,” join InterCcECT for a reading group session on selections from Anti-Oedipus and a response by Badiou. 5pm, Thursday 23 February. Request PDFs and details.
As always, contact us to propose projects; sign up for updates via RSS or check back here regularly for announcements including our own special events in April, May, and June with Kiarina Kordela, Viv Soni, and Tom Eyers.
Highlights from our calendar:
24 February, Bonnie Honig, “Antigone versus Oedipus: Feminist Theory and the Turn to Antigone” at DePaul
28 February, Bruce Robbins, “The Beneficiary: Cosmopolitanism and Inequality” at UIC
2 March, Sianne Ngai at UIC
2-3 March, Cavell’s Aesthetic Criticism at U of C
6 March, Lawrence Grossberg, “Is There a Place for Intellectuals in the New Radicalism?” at Columbia College
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Desiring Abstraction: InterCcECT presents a lecture by Alberto Toscano
InterCcECT proudly presents a talk by Alberto Toscano, Senior Lecturer at Goldsmiths, University of London, “Desiring Abstraction: The Place of Capital in Post ’68 French Thought”.
Thursday, 1 March, 5:30pm
The New Corpse Gallery, 1511 N Milwaukee Ave, Wicker Park.
In preparation, we invite you to a reading group session Thursday 23 February, 5:00pm, focusing on excerpts from Deleuze & Guattari’s Anti-Oedipus along with Alain Badiou’s short piece “The Flux and the Party: In the Margins of Anti-Oedipus“. Contact us for PDF and details.
As always, write to us to propose or announce events, and check the calendar regularly.
In the meantime, we hope to see you around town:
3 February, U Chicago hosts Rolling The Dice: The Art of Chance
10 February, UIC hosts Aesthetics and German Philosophy
17 February, DePaul hosts Karen Feldman, “Phantom Autonomy: On Art and Historiography in Benjamin and Adorno”
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New year, new thought: materialism, aesthetics, and more
As school starts anew, InterCcECT looks forward to new conversations and new elements in our circle. In two short weeks, on 24 Jan, join us for the previously scheduled reading group on Quentin Meillassoux’s Divine Inexistence. Contact us for PDF and details.
Shortly thereafter, meet us at UIC for Aesthetics and German Philosophy, a conference sponsored by the American Friends of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, featuring Robert Pippin, David Wellberry, Karl Ameriks, and Elizabeth Millan. 10 Feb, 9:45am-5pm at UIC Student Center East, 570 S Halsted, Room 302.
Check the calendar for other upcoming events, and let us know: what are your theory goals for the new year?
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necessary contingency, divine inexistence, and other (de)feats of finitude
How is it possible to think a world without the givenness of the world, to think the thing-in-itself after Kant?
InterCcECT will open the new year with this possible new thinking: the speculative materialism of Quentin Meillassoux. Our discussion will focus on Meillassoux’s “Divine Inexistence,” the Appendix to Graham Harman’s recent book Quentin Meillassoux: Philosophy in the Making. (PDF file available upon request.) Meillassoux’s lucid and brief (albeit intricate) book After Finitude is recommended background reading.
Join us Tuesday 24 January at 4pm. Contact us for the address; and, as always, be sure to write to us with any events you’d like to propose or announce, especially texts you’d like to read or works in progress you’d like to share.
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this week in theory: Mbembe and Hägglund
InterCcECT’s ongoing readings on sovereignty merge with a companion working group this week for a discussion of Achille Mbembe’s On The Postcolony, at the UIC Institute for the Humanities (701 S Morgan Street 60607), Thursday 17 November, 3-5pm.
Friday 18 November at 1:30pm, Martin Hägglund talks about his forthcoming book Dying For Time From Socrates to Lacan and beyond. Response by Peter Fenves. Northwestern University’s Kresge Hall 2-360, (1800 Campus Drive 60208).
What’s next week? Send us any events you’d like to announce or propose.
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remember, remember, in early November
This month, InterCcECT’s reading series on sovereignty encircles the city.
3-5 Nov, French Theory in Translation centers on Derrida’s final seminars on sovereignty and the death penalty.
16 Nov, UIC’s Publics, Cultures, Practices of Differences working group meets to discuss Achille Mbembe’s On the Postcolony.
On a different frequency:
For those who missed the Zizek lecture at UIC, a webstream is now available.
4-5 Nov, UofC’s 3CT stages a conference with which the ECT model has some affinity, on “experimental critical attention.”
As always, check the InterCcECT calendar regularly and be sure to send us any events you’d like to announce or propose.
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The Flesh and The Beast
InterCcECT reminds you of our very special upcoming event with Eric Santner, The Philip and Ida Romberg Professor in Modern Germanic Studies at The University of Chicago, discussing his recent work The Royal Remains: The People’s Two Bodies and the Endgames of Sovereignty”, this Monday, 24 October, at 6pm. Contact us for directions.
Sovereignty reigns supreme as theme of theory events around town: beginning 3 November, check out the multi-day, cross-town extravaganza French Theory in Translation. Roundtables, film screenings, and discussions by numerous dignitaries celebrate the publication of Jacques Derrida’s late seminars on sovereignty, The Beast and the Sovereign and The Death Penalty.
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October Rising
This month, InterCcECT directs your attention to several exciting events around Chicago, including our own very special reading group session with Professor Eric Santner. From Foucault to Zizek, psychoanalysis to sovereignty, we hope to see you around town:
14-15 Oct: French-American Conversations on Psychoanalysis at U of C
18 Oct: Foucault Colloquium at DePaul
19 Oct: Class Dismissed – Zizek Reading Group at UIC
21 Oct: Zizek at UIC
24 Oct: InterCcECT reading group, with Eric Santner discussing his work The Royal Remains
26 Oct: “Ghost, Text, Play: Living Within and Without Black Politics” lecture at UIC
And, the ongoing critical experiment: Occupy Wall Street Chicago and beyond.
As always, check the InterCcECT calendar regularly and be sure to send us any events you’d like to announce.
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The Royal Remains
In The Royal Remains: The People’s Two Bodies and the Endgames of Sovereignty, Eric Santner anatomizes the fleshly remainders that incorporate the seemingly disjointed regimes of royal and popular sovereignty. Focusing on what Foucault calls the “strange material and physical presence of the King” as it uncannily animates the body politic, Santner’s analysis offers a bold new account of biopolitics, a strategic plea for psychoanalysis, and riveting readings of modern aesthetics.
InterCcECT is thrilled to host a very special session with Professor Santner discussing his work. Join our continuing conversation on sovereignty, Monday 24 October at 6pm. Contact us for directions.
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