Disaggregated human capital in the Americas: tales of (neo)liberal incommunication

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

Never in history did the human have to reinvent itself like nowadays. Population growth and the rise of competitiveness across the globe under the aegis of capitalism have not only sped up the circulation of goods and information, but have also produced biopolitical practices that force many to rely on government subsidies or, in extreme situations which are becoming increasingly normalized, relocate or migrate. The precarization of the workforce implies a tacit war among human actors to get ahead, while the protestant ethic remains a strong narrative validating an incessant desire for surplus value. As history closes in on itself before techno-scientific imperatives, where can the (post)humanities find a home in the midst of an unrelenting destruction of the commons? Is a utopian sense of commonality even to be entertained in societies of both spectacle and control? The human runs the risk of fabricating a global village full of machinic actants that render imagination obsolete, either by consuming or by getting lost in the mechanisms of power. This panel looks at this inoperative juncture of politics, questioning biospace and community under (neo)liberalism while dialoguing with authors like Agamben, Esposito, Federici, or Hardt & Negri.

In intimate relation with the issues raised, how can we conceive a Pan-American project? What would the face of a post-hegemonic Martí look like? To reflect on these questions regarding this deep-seated anxiety of our times, we welcome literary papers with an interdisciplinary approach that show a concern for the human beyond a transcendent fata morgana.

Sub Track

• Literature of the Americas

Session Organizers

• Daniel Raso-Llaras

• William J Ryan

Chair

• Nelson Cerqueira, Federal University of Bahia

Discussant

• Andrew C Rajca, University of South Carolina

Individual Presentations

• Comunidade e Exclusão na Poesia Negra Brasileira - Paulo Cesar A Andrade da Silva, São Paulo State University

• (Auto)immunizing Liberalism: Law and the Figure of the Individual in the essays of María Zambrano and Ramón Doll in the early 1930s - William J Ryan

• Power and Point of View in "Memorias Postumas de Bras Cubas" - Nelson Cerqueira, Federal University of Bahia

• Difference as a Foil to Otherness: Juan José Saer’s "The Witness" as a Receptacle of Life - Daniel Raso-Llaras