CROSSING FRONTIERS
EXISTENTIAL PHILOSOPHY, POETRY,
AND VISUAL ARTS IN THE WORKS OF
BENJAMIN FONDANE
BEINECKE RARE BOOK AND MANUSCRIPT LIBRARY
YALE UNIVERSITY
APRIL 19-20, 2018
Keynote Speaker:
Prof. Kevin Hart, Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies, University of Virginia
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THURSDAY, APRIL 19
Panel 1: Philosophy and Poetry I
11.00-12.30
Room B 38-39
Chair: Alice Kaplan (Yale University)
Bruce Baugh (Thompson Rivers University), “Benjamin Fondane: From Poetry to a Philosophy of Becoming”
Olivier Salazar-Ferrer (University of Glasgow), “Revolt and Finitude in the Representation of Odyssey”
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Michel Carassou (Association Benjamin Fondane), “De Charlot à Isaac Laquedem. Figures de l’émigrant dans l’œuvre de Benjamin Fondane” [in French]
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Lunch in New Haven
12.30-14.30
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Panel 2: Philosophy and Poetry II
14.30-16.00
Room B 38-39
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Chair: Maurice Samuels (Yale University)
Alexander Dickow (Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University), “Rhetorical Impurity in Benjamin Fondane’s Poetic and Philosophical Works”
Cosana Eram (University of the Pacific), “Consciousness in the Abyss: Benjamin Fondane and the Modern World”
Chantal Ringuet (Brandeis University), “A World Upside Down: Marc Chagall’s Yiddish Paradise According to Benjamin Fondane”
Keynote
16.15
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Prof. Kevin Hart, “'Did Reason Ever Go Mad?': Shestov, Fondane, Husserl, and a Little Beyond." Introduced by Ramona Fotiade (University of Virginia)
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Reception on the Beinecke Library Mezzanine
17.30
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Dinner for Speakers
19.00
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FRIDAY, APRIL 20
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Screening of Short Film from the Fortunoff Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
9.30-10.15
Room B 38-39
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Introduced by Stephen Naron, Director of the Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies
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Coffee break
10.15-10.45
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Panel 3: Visual Arts
10.45-12.15
Room B 38-39
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Chair: Julia Elsky (Loyola University Chicago)
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Nadja Cohen (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven), “For Fear of Stagnation: Cinema and the Art of Disquiet in Fondane’s Essays and Poetry”
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Ramona Fotiade (University of Glasgow), “Benjamin Fondane’s Pictures of the Mind: Dada Cinema and Existential Philosophy”
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Eric Freedman (Institute in Holocaust and Human Rights Research, Cardozo School of Law), "Benjamin Fondane's Ghosts in Maule's Well"
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Lunch in New Haven
12.15-14.15
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Panel 4: Philosophy and Religion
14.15-15.45
Room B 38-39
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Chair: Eliyahu Stern (Yale University)
Joseph Acquisto (University of Vermont), “Evil, Knowledge, and Ethics Between Philosophy and Theology in Fondane and Baudelaire”
Benjamin Guerin (Independent Scholar), “Crossing Religious Frontiers: B. Fondane’s Philosophical Discussions During the 1930s”
Joel Swanson (University of Chicago Divinity School), “Screaming as a Form of Prayer: Kabbalah in the Works of Benjamin Fondane”
“Crossing Frontiers” has been made possible by generous donations from the following donors:
Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library, Yale University
Fortunoff Video Archive for Holocaust Testimonies, Yale University
Judaic Studies Program, Yale University
Department of French, Yale University
The conference has been organized in conjunction with the Association Benjamin Fondane (Paris) and the Lev Shestov Studies Society (University of Glasgow)