The 2010 Comparative Literature Symposium: Longing in the Age of New Media :: February 19, 2010; 10:00 am - 4:00 pm :: University of Southern California, Social Sciences Building, B40, Los Angeles, CA.

In the current age of new media, various fields of study are experiencing a literal vanishing of the very materials that have traditionally defined them. With this disappearance of the physical material, how has our perception and interaction with the new medium altered? Does the end of the age of mechanical reproduction lead to a resurgence of the aura in older media? Is this the result of nostalgia for the tactile or other sensory experiences that no longer act together in the same way? How does the designation of spectral / material change across different media?

Join us for the 2010 Comparative Literature Symposium, a dynamic discussion of these and other questions related to the theme of longing in the age of new media. In the morning keynote speaker Timothy Murray, Professor of Comparative Literature and English at Cornell University and author of Digital Baroque: New Media and Art and Cinematic Folds, will lead a roundtable discussion of papers by graduate students Fiorella Cotrina, (Wo(man) Writing Self and Corporeal Other in Clarice Lispector’s A hora da estrela), Phillip Lobo (Play It Again: Variance and Repetition in Interactive Media), Zach Blas (Queer Technologiesʼ Topology and Viral Aesthetics) and Feng-Mei Heberer (Bodies in digital context). These papers can be accessed on the USC Comparative Literature website. In the afternoon Professor Murray will give a lecture related to the themes of the symposium, followed by a question and answer session. Lunch will be provided.

Please spread the word to students, faculty, and colleagues. We look forward to seeing you at the symposium.