Old Email Archive
Return to old archive list
digest 2006-04-19 #001.txt
litsci-l-digest Wednesday, April 19 2006 Volume 01 : Number
173
In this issue:
SUB 06 Paper proposal: Virtual Panopticon
SUB06: "Evolution, Cognition, and the Fine Art of Reading"
Abstracts DO NOT BELONG
Re: Abstracts DO NOT BELONG
abstract--I like them!
Re: abstract--I like them!
Re: Abstracts DO NOT BELONG
Re: Abstracts DO NOT BELONG
Hotel Info for SLSA 2006
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 11:03:30 -0700 (PDT)
From: d b
Subject: SUB 06 Paper proposal: Virtual Panopticon
Proposal for paper and screening: Virtual Panopticon
Keywords: Art, Technology, Humanities,
Cross-disciplinary
The Power of the Virtual Panopticon explores the ways
in which national border controls have been updated
and expanded through the use of digital technology and
electronic surveillance. The transition from an
emphasis on physical border controls to an emphasis on
virtual border controls reflects a paradigm shift from
a disciplinary society to a control society. Whereas
in the past, visas and passports offered only a
limited amount of foreign individuals?? data at
physical borders, new technology allows nations to
instantaneously collect, monitor, and control a far
greater amount of personal data from decentralized
virtual access points. Computer networks and
databases have added a digital dimension to
Foucauldian panopticism and expanded the ways in which
nations can continually monitor and control visitors??
entry to their borders.
In the animation that accompanies the paper, green and
red spheres travel along a network of transparent
information highways that connect to a virtual border.
To pass through this elastic and modulating dynamic
border, spheres must be cleared at gateways. The
green spheres, representative of the data of those who
have been cleared to enter the nation, are granted
access to the border via open gateways. In contrast,
the red spheres, representative of the data of those
who have been denied access to the nation, are
prohibited from entering the gateways. On the
network, green and red spheres are constantly
monitored as data is dynamically updated. As the
spheres approach the border, the transparency of the
information highways allows observers to easily
monitor the visitors?? data. This instantaneous access
to massive amounts of personal data allows nations to
increase the surveillance and control they have over
the visitors who wish to cross their borders.
David R Burns
Assistant Professor-Animation Media Arts
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Department of Radio and Television
Mailcode: 6609
Carbondale, IL 62901 USA
E: mayaprof@yahoo.com
T: 618.453.6991
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around
http://mail.yahoo.com
- -
+-+-+-+-+-+
Please see the following URL for the LITSCI-L archive, Web resource
links and unsubscribing info:
http://www.law.duke.edu/sls
------------------------------
Date: Tue, 18 Apr 2006 18:04:57 -0700
From: Porter Abbott
Subject: SUB06: "Evolution, Cognition, and the Fine Art of Reading"
"Evolution, Cognition, and the Fine Art of Reading"
Chair/organizer: Porter Abbott
It is probably the case that the capabilities we employ for reading
complex fictional narratives evolved to meet the demands of decipherment
and communication among hunter-gatherers. Yet these same capabilites
serve us well enough to sustain an enormous market for difficult texts
that appear on the face of it inessential to species survival. This
panel is devoted to the continuing exploration of the ways in which our
ancient cognitive equipment serves and is served by these
extraordinarily refined cultural instruments.
1. The Novel as a Cognitive Experiment
Lisa Zunshine
How should literary critics respond to the current explosion of
scientific and popular interest in cognitive evolutionary studies? What
are the intellectual, disciplinary, and political stakes of welcoming it
as a promising interdisciplinary endeavor, of ignoring it, or of
treating it as a fad marred by its commitment to essentialism and
reductionism? Is it possible to engage in a non-reductive cognitive
analysis of narrative patterns? My paper explores these questions by
turning to one of the most exciting areas of research in cognitive
psychology, dealing with ?¨Theory of Mind?Æ (aka ?¨mind-reading?Æ
ability),
that is, our evolved cognitive ability to interpret (and, unavoidably,
misinterpret) observable behavior in terms of underlying mental states
and thus to attribute thoughts, desires, and beliefs to real-life
people??and by extension??to literary characters. Drawing on the novels
of
Jane Austen, I suggest that although the investigation of our Theory of
Mind is very much a project-in-progress, enough carefully documented
research is already available so that we can begin asking such questions
as how does the literary narrative exploit or even train our capacity
for mind-reading? How does it test its limits? How do different
cultural-historical milieus encourage different literary explorations of
this capacity? How do different genres??particularly, the novel??engage
it? Speculative and tentative as answers to these questions could only
be at point, they mark the possibility of a genuine interaction between
cognitive psychology and literary studies, with both fields having much
to offer to each other.
Keywords: Theory of Mind, Novel, Cognition, Experiment
Lisa Zunshine
University of Kentucky
zunshine@uky.edu
2. Between the Lines: Cognitive Contexts and Literary Reading
Elizabeth Drew
The experience of art takes place within a context of expectation that
is updated dynamically through interaction with the artwork itself. In
the case of temporally serial art forms such as linear narrative, each
new element in the flow of a piece is experienced according to cognitive
expectations set by previous elements that are no longer actively
represented in conscious. Artists use the relationship between the
context of expectation and each new element in the flow of a piece to
prompt continued engagement with the work. This process relates the
cognitive experience of significance to a balance of redundancy and
surprise. Redundancy sets expectations, and unmet expectations cause
surprise. Texts that deviate strongly from contextual expectations force
readers to become aware of their expectations, and in extreme cases, the
experience of a work is dominated by the process of making sense.
This paper will explore the means by which unconscious contexts of
expectation influence engagement, communication, and sense-making in the
creation and interpretation of literature. The analysis will draw upon
information theory, cognitive science, and consciousness studies.
Textual readings from works that deviate from expectations will explore
decontextualization and its phenomenological usefulness in studying
cognitive processes.
Keywords: Reading, Interpretation, Information theory, Cognition,
Consciousness
Elizabeth Drew
Trinity College Dublin
elizadrew@gmail.com
3. Evolving oeuvres: The Role of Failure in Literary Invention
H. Porter Abbott
An important strain of cognitivist literary and cultural studies has
focused on not just the inevitability but the actual value of certain
kinds of failure in cognition. This work connects with the key
importance of imperfection, mistakes, errors in evolution itself. Ellen
Spolsky, and more recently F. Elizabeth Hart, have developed a powerful
argument for the congruence of post-structuralism and cognitive theory
in this regard among others and have developed it as part of what Hart
calls a "cognitive post-structuralism" in which the radical instability
of post-structuralist epistemology is both supported and "constrained"
by cognitivist ontology (Hart 2004: 87; Spolsky 2002: 51-2). In this
paper, I propose to expand on their work through the examination of the
work of several late modernist authors -- Samuel Beckett, Georges Perec,
J. G. Ballard -- who incorporated into their writing practice ways in
which authorial control is strategically undermined. If these lapses do
not in themselves deliver effects (as does chance in works by John Cage
and Andy Warhol), they play a vital role in the heightened invention of
unexpected departures that parallels both the evolution of species and
the operation of conscious understanding.
Keywords: Cognition, Gaps, Post-structuralism, Indeterminacy, Evolution
H. Porter Abbott
University of California, Santa Barbara
pabbott@english.ucsb.edu
- -
+-+-+-+-+-+
Please see the following URL for the LITSCI-L archive, Web resource
links and unsubscribing info:
http://www.law.duke.edu/sls
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 08:27:58 -0500
From: "Katherine Arens"
Subject: Abstracts DO NOT BELONG
on a list-serv. PLEASE figure out who they really go to, and STOP THIS
NONSENSE. Moderators, step in, please. I really don't want to read 50+
=
paper
proposals. You owe the list members an apology.
____________________________________________________________________
=
- -
+-+-+-+-+-+
Please see the following URL for the LITSCI-L archive, Web resource
links and unsubscribing info:
http://www.law.duke.edu/sls
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 10:15:18 -0500
From: Joe Amato
Subject: Re: Abstracts DO NOT BELONG
Katherine, appended is what you find at
http://www.dactyl.org/thought/SLSA2006/cfp.htm
which suggests that this listserv *is* indeed to be used for
conference submissions.
Now the proposals are, presumably, and as below, to be the basis for
(online) exchange---something to which this list has never been esp.
prone. I won't hazard a guess as to why this is, but at any rate,
listserv exchange these days tends to be so fraught that I wonder
whether anyone really will post in to discuss so many fascinating
conference submissions.
Anyway, fyi, respectfully.
Best,
Joe
- -----------------------------
NEW OPEN-FORUM SUBMISSION PROCEDURE
We are trying something different with the submission process this
year. Participants are urged to submit their paper/panel abstracts to
the SLSA listserve, and all listserve subscribers are invited to
respond to the abstracts with comments and questions. Individual
submitters are encouraged to use the listserve to self-organize into
coherent panels. If you do form connections and would like to be
placed together in a panel, please let the program chair know by the
submission deadline. We hope that this new procedure will stimulate
dialogue among participants before the conference begins so that the
overall experience of SLSA 2006 will be richer and more useful for
everyone involved.
For individual papers as well as for panel and other proposals,
please submit abstracts of no more than 200 words per speaker, in
plain text (no attachments) pasted into an e-mail message to
LITSCI-L@duke.edu with "SUB 06" followed by the title of the panel or
talk in the subject line. In addition, please offer up to 5 keywords
to classify the paper or session: e.g. "science fiction, technology,
biology, theory, visual art, ecocriticism, Whitehead, Renaissance,
media, cinema, Gaia, rhetoric, poetics, semiotics," and etc.. For
each speaker, provide an e-mail address and each speaker's
institutional affiliation, academic department, or professional
status (e.g. Independent Scholar) or profession (e.g. Technologist,
Novelist) whichever is applicable. The appearance of your submission
on the listserve will be the acknowledgement of its receipt by the
program committee.
>on a list-serv. PLEASE figure out who they really go to, and STOP THIS
>NONSENSE. Moderators, step in, please. I really don't want to read
50+ paper
>proposals. You owe the list members an apology.
>
>
>____________________________________________________________________
- --
Joe Amato, Managing Editor
American Book Review
Illinois State University
CB 4241
Fairchild Hall, Room 109
Normal, IL 61790-4241
USA
309.438.2127 (voice)
309.438.3523 (fax)
AmericanBookReview@ilstu.edu
+-+-+-+-+-+
Please see the following URL for the LITSCI-L archive, Web resource
links and unsubscribing info:
http://www.law.duke.edu/sls
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 10:57:52 -0400
From: campbell@brandeis.edu
Subject: abstract--I like them!
Dear Lit-Sci,
I'd just like to weigh in as someone who appreciated receiving the
abstracts.
I can't go to the conference and was fascinated to watch the development
of
ideas and connections around some of this year's themes. I've archived
many
of the e-mails, sent others on, answered a couple.
De gustibum non est disputandum.
Mary Baine Campbell
- -
+-+-+-+-+-+
Please see the following URL for the LITSCI-L archive, Web resource
links and unsubscribing info:
http://www.law.duke.edu/sls
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 08:46:02 -0700
From: Jack Sarfatti
Subject: Re: abstract--I like them!
Yes, I don't understand why some cognitively constipated academics
are so uptight about this? After all, we all get a jillion spam
messages each day for rolex, viagra et-al - that's what junk filters
are for. It's a fact of life, like homeless sleeping and defecating
in the streets, like latino gangs beating up people in Las Vegas,
like suicide bombers in the streets soon coming to our shores? Life
stinks! ;-)
http://stardrive.org
On Apr 19, 2006, at 7:57 AM, campbell@brandeis.edu wrote:
> Dear Lit-Sci,
>
> I'd just like to weigh in as someone who appreciated receiving the
> abstracts.
> I can't go to the conference and was fascinated to watch the
> development of
> ideas and connections around some of this year's themes. I've
> archived many
> of the e-mails, sent others on, answered a couple.
>
> De gustibum non est disputandum.
>
> Mary Baine Campbell
>
>
> -
> +-+-+-+-+-+
> Please see the following URL for the LITSCI-L archive, Web resource
> links and unsubscribing info:
> http://www.law.duke.edu/sls
>
- -
+-+-+-+-+-+
Please see the following URL for the LITSCI-L archive, Web resource
links and unsubscribing info:
http://www.law.duke.edu/sls
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 10:37:35 -0500
From: "Henry S. Turner"
Subject: Re: Abstracts DO NOT BELONG
Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but it's a relatively simple matter to=20
set rules for your email program that will sort all messages with a=20
certain subject heading into a dedicated folder (i.e. "SLSA 2006" or=20
even "Trash" ). I assumed that this was why all the submissions had
to=20=
follow a fixed format (SUB 06 etc).
Henry Turner
On Apr 19, 2006, at 10:15 AM, Joe Amato wrote:
> Katherine, appended is what you find at [....]
------------------------------
Date: Wed, 19 Apr 2006 12:52:14 -0400
From: "Jennifer E. Boyle"
Subject: Re: Abstracts DO NOT BELONG
Yep...and what a delight it was to see these circulating on what is a
relatively quiet list. A chance to see what is coming up without having
to
take the time to wade through a conference program, and to be reminded
of
the vitality of the list and the field.
Thanks to the organizers for breaking with convention, and though we
don=B9t
need, I know, multiple =B3me toos,=B2 I wanted to endorse this model for
the
future.
Jen B
- --=20
Jen Boyle
Assistant Professor of English
Hollins University
jboyle@hollins.edu
http://members.cox.net/jenboyle/
On 4/19/06 11:37 AM, "Henry S. Turner" wrote:
> Maybe I'm stating the obvious, but it's a relatively simple matter to
set
> rules for your email program that will sort all messages with a
certain
> subject heading into a dedicated folder (i.e. "SLSA 2006" or even
"Trash"=
).
> I assumed that this was why all the submissions had to follow a fixed
for=
mat
> (SUB 06 etc). =20
> [....]
---------------------------------------------------
"Victoria N. Alexander"
4/19/2006 1:03:51 PM
Hotel Info for SLSA 2006
Dear All,
Although it will be a few weeks before we determine which abstracts to
accept for the conference, you may want to make your hotel reservations
sooner rather than later. As this year's conference will not be held at
a hotel, we are not able to reserve rooms for members at a group rate.
The sooner you reserve your hotel, the better your rate will be. If
your plans change, most hotels will allow you to cancel without penalty
within a certain time limit. Below I've pasted the information which
currently appears on the SLSA 06 website under Hotel Info. Please check
there for possible updates.
Seekers of roommates should use litsci-l for that purpose. Please
provide personal contact information so that those who are interested
can contact you directly to work things out, and put ROOMMATE REQUEST
prominently in your subject line so that those not interested can hit
their delete buttons.
Any questions, please write me at alexander@dactyl.org
Victoria Alexander
p.s. The Call for Papers has closed, so your inboxes won't be filled
with abstracts, but I do hope everyone continues to exchange comments.
HOTEL INFORMATION
There will be no official hotel for the SLSA 2006 conference.
Participants can make their own arrangements, but make them now to get
the best rate. At most hotels, you can cancel without penalty prior to
the reservation date. (Check with your hotel about the deadline.) Below
is a list of recommended reasonable / inexpensive hotels near Dactyl
Foundation:
SoLita Hotel
159 Grand Street
SoHo / NoLita area, 5-10 min walk to Dactyl
212 925-3600 (888) SOLITA-8
www.solitasohohotel.com
A "boutique" hotel with lovely, small rooms. 25 Queen or Double Bed
rooms for $239. To get this rate, you must book your room through
Dactyl Foundation by writing to Maria at email@dactyl.org. Members who
book through Dactyl will not pay hotel tax.
Washington Square Park Hotel
103 Waverly Place
Greenwich Village / NYU Area, 10 min walk to Dactyl
212-777-9515
www.wshotel.com
Single rooms at $200 plus tax per night as of 4/15/06. No group rate.
Good Deal. Call now to reserve at this price.
Howard Johnson Express Inn
135 East Houston Street
Lower East Side Area, 15 -20 min walk to Dactyl
212 358-8844 1-800-654-9122
As of 4/15/06, starting at $249 plus tax per night
Off Soho Suites
11 Rivington Street
NoLita / Lower East Side Area. 10- 20 min walk to Dactyl
1-800-633-7646
www.offsoho.com Small hotel w/ 5 rooms, as of 4/15/06 going for $169 -
$199 per night.
OTHER NEARBY HOTELS
The SoHo Grand
310 West Broadway
212 965-3000
www.sohogrand.com
The Tribeca Grand
2 Ave of the Americas
212 519-6600
www.tribecagrand.com
The Holiday Inn - Chinatown
138 LaFayette Street
1-888-HOLIDAY
www.ichotelsgroup.com
BATHROOM-DOWN-THE-HALL BARGAINS BELOW 14TH ST
The Larchmont
27 W. 11th Street
212 989-9333
www.larchmonthotel.com
OTHER RESOURCES
www.hotels.com
Victoria N. Alexander, Ph.D.
Dactyl Foundation for the Arts & Humanities
64 Grand Street
New York, NY 10013
212 219 2344
www.dactyl.org
Support the arts! Copy and paste the link below to donate to Dactyl
Foundation using PayPal.
https://www.paypal.com/xclick/
business=art%40dactyl.org&item_name=Member+%2420+Friend+%24100+Patron+%2
4500+Benefactor+%241000&item_number=Various+Levels&no_note=1&tax=0&curre
ncy_code=USD
-
+-+-+-+-+-+
Please see the following URL for the LITSCI-L archive, Web resource
links and unsubscribing info:
http://www.law.duke.edu/sls
