On February 6, the Social Theory Workshop will host Robert Hullot-Kentor, Philosopher and Chair, Critical Theory and the Arts, Master of Arts degree program, School of Visual Arts (NY). The meeting will take place in Wilder House (5811 S. Kenwood Ave) at 8pm.
“Severe Clear: Sacrifice and Right Wishing”
In the context of the tenth anniversary of 9/11, in the midst of a sudden deepening of the economic crisis partly or entirely overshadowing the occasion, we hear raised from every corner primordial demands for the necessity of sacrifice and self-inflicted wounds as the only adequate response to the gravity of the situation. The intensification of the economic calamity itself has by any measure been intentional, while nationwide the only audible voices seem to be those calling for austerity and for every budget to be ‘cut.’ The moment thus urgently prompts the question of whether the seminal insight that has lapsed-the insight from which the whole of radical modernism developed-can be recovered: the insight into the primitive in ourselves and in the world around us. `Severe Clear,’ the weather alert issued to pilots on September 11th, 2001, is an excursus on this question that examines in detail the sacral edifice now being constructed in lower Manhattan.
The paper will be distributed one week prior, via the Social Theory Workshop listserv. If you would like to be added to the list serv, contact Stacie Hanneman, sakent@uchicago.edu
Robert Hullot-Kentor is the author of Things Beyond Resemblance: Collected Essays on Theodor W. Adorno; Ice Flow: Essay and Commentary on David Salle; Terra Infirma: The House that Mowry Baden Built. He has edited and/or translated several volumes including, Current of Music: Elements of a Radio Theory, Philosophy of New Music, Aesthetic Theory, and Kierkegaard: Construction of the Aesthetic