BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Princeton University Humanities Council - ECPv6.15.16//NONSGML v1.0//EN
CALSCALE:GREGORIAN
METHOD:PUBLISH
X-WR-CALNAME:Princeton University Humanities Council
X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://humanities.princeton.edu
X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Princeton University Humanities Council
REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H
X-Robots-Tag:noindex
X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H
BEGIN:VTIMEZONE
TZID:America/New_York
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20210314T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20211107T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20220313T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20221106T060000
END:STANDARD
BEGIN:DAYLIGHT
TZOFFSETFROM:-0500
TZOFFSETTO:-0400
TZNAME:EDT
DTSTART:20230312T070000
END:DAYLIGHT
BEGIN:STANDARD
TZOFFSETFROM:-0400
TZOFFSETTO:-0500
TZNAME:EST
DTSTART:20231105T060000
END:STANDARD
END:VTIMEZONE
BEGIN:VEVENT
DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20220920T163000
DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20220920T190000
DTSTAMP:20260530T045741
CREATED:20220722T151818Z
LAST-MODIFIED:20220913T130344Z
UID:48655-1663691400-1663700400@humanities.princeton.edu
SUMMARY:Poison and politics: toward a (pre-modern?) theory of community and communication
DESCRIPTION:The first task in this talk will be to suggest\, by drawing on linguistics\, literary texts\, myth and scripture\, that in many pre-modern cultures poison\, hypocrisy\, politics\, and communication were intimately related concepts. In these cultures\, communication could be thought of as profoundly ambivalent\, capable of both deceit and revelation. The dangers of this ambivalence were often imagined in terms of poison\, and specialists in communicative action often represented as poisoners. Nirenberg will then focus on these dynamics in communicative acts claiming to establish or represent political order in the Middle Ages: on gifts and brides in Beowulf\, on courtiers in Orderic Vitalis\, John of Salisbury and Herbert of Bosham\, on Italians in Webster’s Duchess of Malfi and Thomas Nashe’s Unfortunate Traveler. Finally\, he will offer an example of how these pre-modern\, pre-theoretical ways of imagining the dangers of communication and community became “critical theory” in modernity\, using the example of Norbert Elias\, and hinting at some implications for figurations of “being” and “seeming\,” “transparency” and “conspiracy\,” “hypocrisy” and “sincerity\,” in our own hyper-mediatized present. \nThis talk will be held from 4:30 – 6:00 pm\, followed by a Welcome Back Reception from 6:00 – 7:00 pm. \nPlease RSVP for this event here. \nDavid Nirenberg (Institute for Advanced Study)\, IAS Director and Leon Levy Professor\, is a historian and author\, recognized for wide-ranging scholarship on the interaction of Christians\, Jews\, and Muslims. His research provides insight into discussions of racism\, Anti-Semitism\, and Christian-Muslim relations. At the University of Chicago\, Nirenberg served as founding director of the Neubauer Collegium for Culture and Society\, Dean of the Social Sciences\, Executive Vice Provost\, and Interim Dean of the Divinity School. Nirenberg is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and Medieval Academy of America. His most recent book\, co-authored with his father (Ricardo Nirenberg) is Uncountable: A Philosophical History of Number and Humanity from Antiquity to the Present\, which seeks to understand the powers and limits of the sciences and the humanities. He is currently at work on a history of racial thought in Judaism\, Christianity and Islam.
URL:https://humanities.princeton.edu/event/poison-and-politics-toward-a-pre-modern-theory-of-community-and-communication/
LOCATION:219 Aaron Burr Hall\, 219 Aaron Burr Hall\, Princeton\, NJ\, 08502\, United States
ATTACH;FMTTYPE=image/jpeg:https://humanities.princeton.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/Image-1-landscape.jpg
GEO:40.3501852;-74.6566027
X-APPLE-STRUCTURED-LOCATION;VALUE=URI;X-ADDRESS=219 Aaron Burr Hall 219 Aaron Burr Hall Princeton NJ 08502 United States;X-APPLE-RADIUS=500;X-TITLE=219 Aaron Burr Hall:geo:-74.6566027,40.3501852
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR