Absolute Apology, Absolute Forgiveness

"Cultural Studies Colloquium"

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Zoom

Dr. David Eng, the Richard L. Fisher Professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania will give a talk titled Absolute Apology, Absolute Forgiveness based on their forthcoming book Reparations and the Human.

Absolute Apology, Absolute Forgiveness is part of Dr. Eng's forthcoming book, “Reparations and the Human,” which explores the history of reparations in relation to Cold War Asia, beginning with New World discovery and indigenous dispossession and concluding with the biopolitical aftermath of atomic destruction in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Reparation is a key term not only in political theory but also in psychoanalysis, in particular object relations, yet the two notions are rarely discussed in relation to one another. “Reparations and the Human” examines how political and psychic genealogies of reparation can supplement one another in our conceptions of the human and human rights after genocide and nuclear holocaust.

The talk will investigate the history of uranium mining and specifically “Little Boy,” the atomic bomb detonated by the U.S. military over Hiroshima on August 6, 1945. Much of the world’s uranium supply is mined from indigenous lands, and the uranium for Little Boy, too, came in part from the lands of the Sahtu Dene, an indigenous people in Great Bear Lake, Canada. Ignorant at the time of the intended purpose and destination of the ore they helped to mine, the Sahtu Dene nonetheless felt implicated once they learned of Hiroshima’s fate. In response to the disaster, they sent a delegation to Hiroshima to apologize. Dr. Eng's discussion of the Sahtu Dene’s response to the atomic bombing will extend Jacques Derrida’s notion of “absolute forgiveness” by developing a corollary concept: “absolute apology.”

This talk will be introduced and moderated by Dr. Susette Min, Associate Professor of Asian American Studies at UC Davis. You can RSVP for the Zoom webinar here: https://ucdavis.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_baPzRAsjSq28BIdp4o1Sgg

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