Monday, Oct. 6, 2025 from 7:00-8:30PM
In this lecture, Michael Marder turns to Freud’s theories of civilization, mourning, and melancholia in order to interpret diverse responses to the contemporary climate crisis. He argues that a civilization founded on repression and extractive control of nature is inherently anti-ecological, which is why, having undercut its life supports, it now faces collapse through the very forces it sought to master. Symbolic eco-activist attacks on artworks expose this contradiction by contrasting the protection of cultural artifacts with the neglect of ecosystems; however, they remain caught up in the logic of the civilization they oppose. In turn, Freud’s concepts of mourning and melancholia illuminate contemporary reactions to environmental devastation, from guilt and misanthropy to paralysis and self-destructive protest. While most theorists prefer mourning, Marder argues that, rather than dismiss or devalue melancholia, it is imperative to let this other (apparently pathological) reaction to loss guide us toward uncomfortable truths about human entanglement with nature. Can it be the case that working through and lingering with melancholia is essential for transforming civilization into a non-extractive, relational mode of existence attuned to planetary life?
Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025 from 7:00-8:30PM
Anticipating in many ways Derrida’s Gift of Death, John Donne’s Biathanatos offers Christ’s sacrifice, his suicide, as an example of “perfect charity,” worthy of imitation. Donne defends the moral decision of suicide, saying we may go beyond the law if we “dispense” with our conscience and reject the reason for the law. Donne moves even closer to Derrida in the Sermons when he says, “I deprehend myself,” by which Donne means that we catch ourselves by surprise in some evil or secret deed. Derrida argues that the “gift of death” finds a paradox of sacrifice in every moral decision—the surprise of the other makes the decision in me for which I am fully responsible.
November 20, 2025 at 10:00AM (Central)
Location: Virtual Event
Friday, January 23 at 1:00PM (Central)
Location: Virtual Event
Thursday, January 29 at 11:30AM (Central)
Location: Virtual Event
Thursday, February 26 (more information TBC)
Location: Virtual Event
March, 2026 (more information TBC)
This lecture will revisit the theoretical reception of Melville’s short story “Bartleby, the Scrivener” by writers ranging from Maurice Blanchot to Giorgio Agamben to the anonymous collective Tiqqun, as well as its political renewal during the events of Occupy Wall Street. It will ask how we can reread this reception now in the wake of Bartleby theory and politics, bringing it into conversation with the slave revolt of another short story by Melville “Benito Cereno.” Its aim will be to elucidate the art of refusal in Melville, his techniques of abdication and abolition, enacting a general strike in and through literature that speaks to the urgency of living otherwise in times of distress.
Location: University of Manitoba
March, 2026 (more information TBC)
Location: University of Manitoba