This is a reminder that Cat Lambert (Cornell University) will be giving a talk entitled:

"Scissoring Cavafy: Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s ‘artist’s book,’ The Last Days of Pompeii." 

The talk will take place on Tuesday, October 21st at 4:10 pm in Hamilton 516.

Abstract:

Shortly before her death in 2009, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick made a unique ‘artist’s book’ by altering a 1976-edition of Edward Bulwer-Lytton’s The Last Days of Pompeii (1834), a novel that framed Pompeii’s fiery destruction as God’s punishment for its inhabitants’ decadent “gaiety” of life. In this paper, I analyze one of the central alterations Sedgwick makes to the book: the collage of 22 excerpts from the poetry of C. P. Cavafy. I argue that Sedgwick performs across this book’s pages a specifically Cavafian poetics of desire and reading. Further, Sedgwick’s Cavafian intervention materializes various threads of her well-known work on reparative reading, challenging the novel’s queer eradicating impulses through a “sustained seeking of pleasure” (Sedgwick 2003: 137).  

Please note: To enter the Columbia campus, you will need either a valid Columbia ID or a guest access QR code. To receive guest access, please email Melody Wauke (maw2277@columbia.edu) at least two days before the event).

We hope you can join us!