Resonance in Art, Film, Literature, Music, and Theory (GSA 2020)
GSA Annual Conference
October 1-4, 2020, Washington D.C., USA
Deadline: January 27, 2020
Seminar Title: Resonance in Art, Film, Literature, Music, and Theory
Seminar Conveners: Frauke Berndt (University of Zurich) & Lutz Koepnick (Vanderbilt University)
Resonance is a deeply ambivalent concept. In the natural sciences, it is used to explain the impact of a particular object’s vibrations onto another object; it describes causal processes and unambiguous chains of events. In the realm of human affairs, on the other hand, in the wake of eighteenth-century aesthetics we have come to employ the term to identify relationships for which we cannot name exact causes and direct influences—the (un)logic of affects, emotions, and empathetic excitations that exceed predictability. In spite of widely different meanings, however, the concept of resonance privileges ideas of proximity and contiguity, the mutual dependency of subject and object, a reciprocal directness of touch, contact, and communication that is often (falsely) believed to elude mediation. In this seminar, we explore the role and usefulness of resonance as a category of aesthetic analysis and theory. Though the concept may be of particular relevance to the sphere of sound and music, seminar participants will equally investigate the extent to which resonance offers a viable concept to examine various artistic mediums and detail their impact on readers, viewers, listeners, and participants. Last but not least, the seminar will discuss the relation of “resonant criticism” to other frameworks of cultural inquiry.
The seminar conveners will provide a reading list of 5-7 seminal essays by June 15, 2020. Each participant will submit a short thought paper of about 1,000-1,500 words by September 1, 2020 in which they relate at least two of these essays to their own work on the aesthetics of resonance.
Please apply with cv and an outline of your research interests (max. 200 words) until January 27, 2020: