A unique feminist approach to the legacy of Jacques Derrida, Chronicle of Separation is a disparate yet beautifully interwoven series of distinct readings, genres, and themes, offering a powerful reflection of love in-and as-deconstruction.
Deutsches Haus at NYU (42 Washington Mews, New York, N.Y.) presents a lecture on Wednesday, April 20, at 6:30 p.m. by Michal Ben-Naftali on her new book Chronicle of Separation, followed by a conversation with Professor Avital Ronell, who authored the foreword.
A unique feminist approach to the legacy of Jacques Derrida, Chronicle of Separation is a disparate yet beautifully interwoven series of distinct readings, genres, and themes, offering a powerful reflection of love in-and as-deconstruction. Looking especially at relationships between women, Ben-Naftali provides a wide-ranging investigation of interpersonal relationships: the love of a teacher, the anxiety-ridden bond between a mother and daughter as manifested in anorexia, passion between two women, love after separation and in mourning, the tension between one's self and the internalized other. Traversing each of these investigations, Chronicle of Separation takes up Derrida's Memoires for Paul de Man and The Post Card, Lillian Hellman's famed friendship with a woman named Julia, and adaptations of the biblical Book of Ruth. Above all, it is a treatise on the love of theory in the name of poetry, a passionate book on love and friendship.
Michal Ben-Naftali is a writer and a translator who lectures at Tel Aviv University. Her other books include The Visitation of Hannah Arendt, Childhood, a Book-a Novella, On Retreat: Four Essays, and Spirit. Her translations into Hebrew include works by Jacques Derrida, Julia Kristeva, Andre Breton, and Maurice Blanchot.
Avital Ronell is a University Professor in the Humanities and in the Departments of German and Comparative Literature at New York University. Her research spans the fields of literary studies, psychoanalysis, feminist philosophy, political philosophy, and ethics. As Jacques Derrida Professor of Philosophy, she also teaches regularly at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. Among her recent books are Loser Sons: Politics and Authority (University of Illinois Press, 2012); The Test Drive (University of Illinois Press, 2007); Stupidity (University of Illinois Press, 2003).
Events at Deutsches Haus are free and open to the public. If you would like to attend this event, please send an email to deutscheshaus.rsvp@nyu.edu. As space at Deutsches Haus is limited, please arrive ten minutes prior to the event to ensure you get a good seat. Thank you!
Book Launch: A Chronicle of Separation is a DAAD supported event.