This event will propose that a range of disciplines across the humanities have shared and suggestive investments in questions of hatred. Speakers will explore hatred as a human emotion not as it is simply decried or enabled in particular works of art, but as it is in different ways put to use. In particular, they will explore the uses of hatred in criticism: of art, literature and culture. The day will bring together scholars and critics in literature and the visual arts, who are also invested in a range of disciplines including psychoanalysis, queer theory, philosophy and anthropology, in order to discuss hatred in, and the hatred of, a range of creative media.

Each presentation will be followed by discussion with the audience, and the day will end with a final roundtable reflection on hatred and the humanities.

Register here to attend the symposium.

For any questions, please direct these to David Russell (djrussell@ucla.edu) or Sarah Kareem (kareem@humnet.ucla.edu).

Schedule

9:45 am – Welcome and Introduction

10:00 am – 10:50 am – Sarah Kareem (English, UCLA): “The Art Lover and the Vandal”

11:00 am – 11:50 am – Wendy Lee (English, NYU): “Austen’s Hatred”

11:50 am – 12:10 pm – Break

12:10 pm – 1:00 pm – David Russell (English, UCLA): “The Hatred of Criticism”

1:00 pm – 2:00 pm – Lunch Break

2:00 pm – 2:50 pm – Jeremy Melius (Art History, University of York): “Deprivation and Delinquency in Ruskin’s History of Art”

3:00 pm – 3:50 pm – Jaś Elsner (Art History, Oxford University): “Image as Aggression in Courbet: about the polemical nature of L’Origine du Monde”

3:50 pm – 4:10 pm – Break

4:10 pm – 5:00 pm – Roundtable Discussion