shameless self promotion and the mla
I'll be at the MLA (Modern Languages Association) among other things, getting an award for rogue thought from Slought Foundation in Philadelphia. In addition to this, there will be a book launch on the same night for Rrrrevolutionnaire , a volume of interview transcripts with a roster of theory heads from Cixous to Ronell...with an afterword by yours truly.
The presentation of the award will include a panel discussion with Marjorie Perloff and Jim English -- who has just published a book called The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards and the Circulation of Cultural Value .
I will be discussing among other things a culture industry analysis of the industrialization of distinction. It is ironic for me to get this award at this time, since I am completing a book manuscript that has no publisher -- and so find myself in the strange position of once again knocking at editor's doors, hoping for success, hat in hand, once again...One of the things I am going to talk about on in my "acceptance speech" is the strange phenomenon of ubiquitiouse sense of disempowerment and marginality that almost everyone in the profession can lay claim to...English points out that critique and denunciation of prizes is almost as institutionalized as the culture of prizes itself.
Have a very Happy Holiday Season. I will try to go to the panel on bloggers, but I can really make no claims to being able to get up before 8:30 for the morning sessions. I know that I don't have my MLA badge although I am sure I did register for the conference! It is the professional organizaiton I love to hate!
If you are going to be MLA, please drop by Slought on December 29. Information is on their website above.
The presentation of the award will include a panel discussion with Marjorie Perloff and Jim English -- who has just published a book called The Economy of Prestige: Prizes, Awards and the Circulation of Cultural Value .
I will be discussing among other things a culture industry analysis of the industrialization of distinction. It is ironic for me to get this award at this time, since I am completing a book manuscript that has no publisher -- and so find myself in the strange position of once again knocking at editor's doors, hoping for success, hat in hand, once again...One of the things I am going to talk about on in my "acceptance speech" is the strange phenomenon of ubiquitiouse sense of disempowerment and marginality that almost everyone in the profession can lay claim to...English points out that critique and denunciation of prizes is almost as institutionalized as the culture of prizes itself.
Have a very Happy Holiday Season. I will try to go to the panel on bloggers, but I can really make no claims to being able to get up before 8:30 for the morning sessions. I know that I don't have my MLA badge although I am sure I did register for the conference! It is the professional organizaiton I love to hate!
If you are going to be MLA, please drop by Slought on December 29. Information is on their website above.
2 Comments:
Congratulations on the award, Catherine! Perhaps the institutionalized critique of awards is another instantiation of the modesty topos that seems to be either a codified feature of classical rhetoric, a tick of the human condition, or both. The difference being that instead of say, "Oh, I don't deserve it," one takes on the mission of the award itself.
There was a great deal of conflict and intrigue about the actual event itself -- its rogue nature maybe made this predictable.
But the one thing I learned from Jim English's book is that the problem with awards and grants is that despite the appearance of consensus -- there is a moment of radical sovereignty that cannot be accounted for in all prizes, grants etc., and that is in the selection of the selectors...
so to get beyond the institutional critique of awards, one has to look at the structure of decision...who decides on deciders? and when you see juries put together, there are often cash incentives for the jurors that are difficult to refuse.
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