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SUMMARY:Postgraduate Panel - Sara L. Borga (University of Oxford)\, Maya H
 ollander (University of Oxford)\, Andrie Morris (University of Oxford)
DTSTART;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250612T130000
DTEND;VALUE=DATE-TIME:20250612T140000
UID:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/12a66676-3147-4bba-b22c-7f83f49d52f6/
DESCRIPTION:Poetry\, Delyricised: The Formal and Moral Stakes of Claudia R
 ankine’s Poetic Address (Sara L. Borga\, University of Oxford):\n\nIf th
 e subtitle (An American Conversation) of Claudia Rankine’s Just Us (2020
 )\, the third volume in her American Lyric trilogy\, signals a retreat fro
 m the lyric while still holding onto its vestiges\, how does this shift re
 define the stakes of Rankine’s poetic address? While the trilogy’s rec
 eption as formally innovative has largely focused on its intertextual effe
 cts or the wayward lyricism of Citizen (2014)\, it often sidesteps an in-d
 epth engagement with how the volumes relate to one another\, particularly 
 Rankine’s distancing from the ‘lyric’ as a defining category. This t
 alk will focus on how this transition aligns with Rankine’s deepening co
 ncern with the intersection of language\, accountability\, and ethics evid
 ent in her dialogic exploration of racial justice in Just Us as an intimat
 e\, everyday practice. The book’s title—echoing Richard Pryor’s pun 
 on ‘justice’ as ‘just us’—captures this tension\, exposing how h
 istorical failures of justice permeate\, and segregate\, intimate and syst
 emic interactions. I will discuss my current research on how the aesthetic
  potential of Rankine’s poetics might be most fully realised by tracing 
 her lyric’s journey away from itself.\n\nGeorge R. Stewart and the Post-
 Apocalyptic American Eden (Maya Hollander\, University of Oxford):\n\nThis
  talk proposes a tradition of biblical reception in post-apocalyptic Ameri
 can fiction centred on the creation story of Genesis 1-3\, focusing on Geo
 rge R. Stewart’s Earth Abides (1949) as a representative example of this
  tradition. For Stewart\, the apocalypse becomes a setting for Edenic rege
 neration and the emergence of a new American Adam\, an agent of light\, or
 der\, and civilisation. The tradition of the post-apocalyptic American Ede
 n\, which can be traced as far back as Nathaniel Hawthorne’s ‘The New 
 Adam and Eve’ (1843)\, resurfaces across myriad speculative renderings o
 f American landscapes\, including novels by Walter M. Miller\, Angela Cart
 er\, Octavia Butler\, Margaret Atwood\, and Cormac McCarthy.\n\nCruel Dual
 isms: Restraints\, Resistance and the Limits of Bare Bottomhood (Andrie Mo
 rris\, University of Oxford):\n\nMy talk considers satire in Nana Kwame Ad
 jei-Brenyah’s speculative fiction. I suggest his treatment of spectacula
 r blackness in ‘Zimmer Land’ and Chain-Gang All-Stars illustrates Chri
 stina Sharpe’s observation that ‘spectacle is a relation of power.’ 
 The confluence of antiracist politics and neo-colonialist capitalist agend
 as produces a literary black body that\, I argue\, comments critically on 
 that hegemony.\n\nSpeakers:\nSara L. Borga (University of Oxford)\, Maya H
 ollander (University of Oxford)\, Andrie Morris (University of Oxford)
LOCATION:Rothermere American Institute (Downstairs Seminar Room)\, 1A Sout
 h Parks Road OX1 3UB
TZID:Europe/London
URL:https://talks.ox.ac.uk/talks/id/12a66676-3147-4bba-b22c-7f83f49d52f6/
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DESCRIPTION:Talk:Postgraduate Panel - Sara L. Borga (University of Oxford)
 \, Maya Hollander (University of Oxford)\, Andrie Morris (University of Ox
 ford)
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