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THE WEATHER IN PROUST READING GROUP AT THE GRADUATE CENTER
The Center for the Humanities at The Graduate Center, CUNY, is hosting a monthly spring reading group (February 14-May 15) focused on the first section of Eve Sedgwick’s book The Weather in Proust. The first section, approximately three-quarters of the book, comprises Sedgwick’s work on and around Proust. Sedgwick’s rich and complex view of Proust emerges as she approaches his writing through discussions of topics such as Neoplatonism, Buddhism, Theory of Mind, autism, the poet C P Cavafy, Melanie Klein, and Sedgwick’s own artwork, to name a few. The group will be led by H A Sedgwick and Joshua Wilner, and facilitated by a series of volunteers. Attendance at all five meetings is highly desirable, and participants will be asked to take an active part in the discussion. Enrollment is limited, so please register as soon as possible.
For more information and to register, see The Graduate Center website
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THE WEATHER IN PROUST REVIEWED IN PUBLISHERS WEEKLY AND THE LA REVIEW OF BOOKS
From the LA Review of Books:
“But while a great deal here is familiar — indeed, many passages from the above books resurface, verbatim, throughout these pages — there is nothing rehashed about the project itself. To the contrary: For a writer whose prose (and thought) could often be astoundingly dense, circuitous, and lovingly (if sometimes frustratingly) devoted to articulating the farthest reaches of complexity, the overall effect of The Weather in Proust is one of great clarification and distillation. Indeed, for those unfamiliar with Sedgwick’s work, I would recommend starting with The Weather in Proust and moving backward from there, as the volume offers an enjoyably compressed, coherent, and retrospective portrait of Sedgwick’s principal preoccupations.”
From Publishers Weekly:
“This posthumous collection of Sedgwick’s essays presents readers with a glittering kaleidoscope of ‘capacious concerns.’ Sedgwick, a pioneer in queer studies, shines as she contemplates Proust, textile art, and mortality in language that is challenging and exhilarating.”
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PUBLICATION OF THE WEATHER IN PROUST
The Weather in Proust gathers pieces written by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick in the last decade of her life. The book is edited by her longtime friend and literary executor, Jonathan Goldberg. From Duke University Press’s website:
“This book takes its title from the first essay, a startlingly original interpretation of Proust. By way of Neoplatonism, Buddhism, and the work of Melanie Klein, Sedgwick establishes the sense of refreshment and surprise that the author of the Recherche affords his readers. Proust also figures in pieces on the poetry of C. P. Cavafy, object relations, affect theory, and Sedgwick’s textile art practices. More explicitly connected to her role as a pioneering queer theorist are an exuberant attack against reactionary refusals of the work of Guy Hocquenghem and talks in which she lays out her central ideas about sexuality and her concerns about the direction of US queer theory. Sedgwick lived for more than a dozen years with a diagnosis of terminal cancer; its implications informed her later writing and thinking, as well as her spiritual and artistic practices. In the book’s final and most personal essay, she reflects on the realization of her impending death. Featuring thirty-seven color images of her art, The Weather in Proust offers a comprehensive view of Sedgwick’s later work, underscoring its diversity and coherence.”
Buy the book at Indiebound
Buy the book at Amazon
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OCTOBER 22, 2011: A CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE OF DAVID KOSOFSKY
Eve’s brother David died of a heart attack on July 5, 2011, the day before his fifty-eighth birthday. The celebration of his life is to be held in Bethesda at Maplewood Park Place, the residence of his mother Rita.
Margaret Soltan remembers David Kosofsky
Obituary
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OCTOBER 27, 2011: SECOND ANNUAL EVE KOSOFSKY SEDGWICK MEMORIAL LECTURE AT BOSTON UNIVERSITY
The Age of Frankenstein: Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick and the Temporality of Homophobia