"State of Emergency"

A panel led by three intellectuals on 'Estado de Accesao,' or states of exception, in Latin American literature. Featuring Thiago Lima Nicodemo (University of Sao Paulo), Jossianna Arroyo (University of Texas, Austin), and Rodrigo Lopes de Barros (University of Texas of Austin).

The Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben defined the state of exception as a legal civil war, which allows physical elimination of not only political enemies, but also plain categories of citizens that for any reason are not suitable for the contemporary political system. According to Walter Benjamin, this state of exception has become the rule.

This round table aims to discuss and to analyze the events of this contemporary paradigm in three aspects of Latin American literature. In the Brazilian case, Chico Buarque’s novels will be led to a critical analysis of the threshold between state and society. Moreover, the modern ruins of Cuba are to be read across Benjamin’s writings on 19th Century Paris. And eventually, Prof. Arroyo will analyze Betances’ late nineteenth-century writings from the perspective of an “archeology of death” as technologies of the Puerto Rican colonial experiences of oppression against two empires (Spain, the United States).

Refreshments and hors d'oeuvres will be served. Sponsored by the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, University of Texas at Austin