The Theory Reading Group at Cornell University invites submissions for its seventh annual interdisciplinary spring conference:

Repetition and Revolt

Featuring keynote speaker Rebecca Comay (University of Toronto) Cornell University Ithaca, New York April 14-16, 2011 Wavering between the occurrence of the novel and the recurrence of the routine, the concept of revolution often divides along a line suggested by its etymology. Thus, even as Copernicus upset the world system of his time, he did so by describing an orbit, a stable circle. Put simply, this legacy reminds us that every proposed overturning might yield nothing more than a mere return, a tendency that threatens to undermine radical upheavals in domains ranging from the political to the aesthetic to the scientific. As Robert Frost suggests, it may well be in the nature of total revolution to put the same class up on top. This critical ambiguity can emerge whenever we attempt to account for the possibility of change or difference. Does this division reveal something essential about revolution, or does it indicate a fault in the ways in which we think about revolution? In what ways has contemporary thought attempted to reckon with or reconcile the competing meanings of this term? How do philosophical and theoretical discourses account for change and difference, not only in the realms of politics, literature, art, and science, but also within philosophy and theory themselves? What forms of critique, resistance, or action can we find in contemporary thought, and what do these forms disclose about the potential or limits of the concept of revolution? Suggested topics: Paradigm shifts and epistemic breaks Theories of literary innovation Copernican revolution or Ptolemaic counterrevolution Theories of the event Aesthetics and politics The figure of the genius Repetition and difference Revolution and globalization The finite and the infinite Secularization, the post-secular, the new atheism Turns: political, linguistic, ethical, (anti)social, comic Collapse, catastrophe, and crisis Evolution and Darwinism Eternal return Utopia and dystopia Revolutionary violence and messianism Law and exception Theories of transgression Ruptures critical and diacritical Revolutions in media/social mediation The future of critique

Please limit the length of abstracts to no more than 250 words. The deadline for submission of 250-word abstracts for 20-minute presentations is February 15, 2011. Please include your name, e-mail address, and phone number. Abstracts should be e-mailed to repetitionrevolt@gmail.com. Notices of acceptance will be sent no later than February 25, 2011. For more information about the Cornell Theory Reading Group, visit_http://www.arts.cornell.edu/trg.