Robert Barsky's Vanderbilt Site

Robert Penn Warren Seminar on Literature and Law, 2010-2013

West House Faculty Head of House, Robert Barsky

Maymester in Switzerland 2013

Robert Barsky's Vanderbilt Website
 
Some recent projects
Maymester in Switzerland!
Curriculum vitae
Books and Journals

Zellig Harris: From American Linguistics to Socialist Zionism. Cambridge; London: The MIT Press, 2011. 

The Chomsky Effect: A Radical Works Beyond the Ivory Tower, Cambridge; London: The MIT Press, 2007; paperback 2009

Table of Contents and sample chapters

Quests Beyond the Ivory Tower:  Public Intellectuals, Academia and the Media, Edited by Saleem H. Ali and Robert Barsky, a special issue of AmeriQuests, 2006. 

Introduction by Ali and Barsky

Quebec and Canada in the Americas, edited by Robert Barsky, as special issue of AmeriQuests, 2006.

Introduction by Barsky

Marc Angenot and the Scandal of History, a special issue of the Yale Journal of Criticism that features articles by Marc Angenot, Robert Barsky, Fredric Jameson, Marie-Christine Leps, Michel Pierssens, Darko Suvin. 2004. 

Introduction to Marc Angenot and the Scandal of History

Workers Councils, by Anton Pannekoek. A new and revised edition, edited and with comments by Robert Barsky, interviews with Noam Chomsky, Ken Coates and Peter Hitchcock, and a republication of a seminal piece by Paul Mattick. London/SF: AK Press, 2002.

Introduction to Workers Councils including a discussion between Chomsky and Barsky

Arguing and Justifying: Assessing the Convention Refugee Choice of Moment, Motive and Host Country. Aldershot; Burlington; Sydney; Singapore: Ashgate, 2001.

Paris-SubStance-America, edited by Robert Barsky. A special issue of SubStance devoted to French theory. 2001.

Introduction à la théorie littéraire. Quebec: Presses de l'Université du Québec, 1997. 

Noam Chomsky: A Life of Dissent. Cambridge; London: MIT Press, 1997, 1998.

Translations and revised editions:

Constructing a Productive Other: Discourse Theory and the Convention Refugee Hearing, Amsterdam; Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 1994.

Bakhtin and Otherness. A special issue of Discours social/Social Discourse edited by Robert Barsky and Michael Holquist, 1991.

Introduction to Bakhtin and Otherness

Translation:

Philosophy and the Passions: Toward a History of Human Nature, Penn State Press, 2000, Robert Barsky's translation and introduction of Michel Meyer's Le Philosophe et les passions (Paris: Livres de poche).

Introduction to Philosophy and the Passions 
Research Areas and Selected Publications
1. Literary and Language Theory; translation; Literature and Law

2. Refugee, Border and Migration Studies

3. The Milieus of Noam Chomsky and Zellig Harris
4. Selected Translations
  • “What Can Literature do? From Literary Sociocriticism to a Critique of Social Discourse” by Marc Angenot, Yale Journal of Criticism 17.2 (Fall 2004): 217-232.
  •  “A State of Social Discourse” by Michel Pierssens, Yale Journal of Criticism, 17.2 (Fall 2004): 255-262.
  •  Denise Helly, “Social cohesion and Ethnic Minorities,” for the Canadian Journal of Anthropology and Sociology (2003).
  • Denise Helly, “Ethnic and National Minorities” for the Canadian Journal of Anthropology and Sociology (2002).
  • Philosophy and the Passions, a translation (with a preface, introduction and bibliography) of Le Philosophe et les Passions (Livre de Poche) for Penn State Press Literature and Philosophy Series, dir. Anthony Cascardi, 2000..
  •  “Rhetoric and the Theory of Argument” by Michel Meyer. Revue Internationale de Philosophie 196.2 (1996): 325-358.
  •  “The Problematological Interpretation of the Cogito: Is There a Distinctive Argumentative Structure in The Meditations?” by Michel Meyer. Revue internationale de Philosophie 195 (1996): 23-49.
  •  “The Representamen, The Sign and the Abduction”, by Jean Fisette, Pierce Papers. Toronto Semiotic Circle, 1996.
  •  “The Mirror, The Beaker and the Touchstone: or, What Can Literature Do For Science?” by Jean Marc Lévy Leblond, SubStance 71/72: 1 26.
  •  “The Political Regulation of Cultural Plurality: Foundations and Principles,” by Denise Helly, for Canadian Ethnic Studies / Études Ethniques au Canada 25.2 (1993): 15 35.
  •  [with Sydney Mintz] “Introduction” Chinese Emigration: The Cuba Commission Report. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993, pp. 1 30.
  •  [with Dominique Michaud] “Bakhtin and Postmodernism: An Unexpected Encounter. Notes on Jean-Paul Goude’s ‘Marseillaise’,” by Régine Robin. Discours social / Social Discourse 3.1-2 (1991): 229 232.
  •  “Following the Thread,” by Marc Angenot. Science Fiction Studies, 16.2 (July 1989): 218 222.

5. Selected reviews

  • Review article of Sophia A. McClennen, Ariel Dorfman: An Aesthetics of Hope. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2010 in Modern Drama (2011).
  • Review of Margot Finn, Michael Lobban and Jenny Bourne Taylor, eds., Legitimacy and Illegitimacy in Nineteenth-Century Law, Literature and History. Houndsmills UK; New York, NY: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, for New Books Online-19 (2011).
  • Review of Christine L. Krueger, Reading for the Law: British Literary History and Gender Advocacy (Victorian Literature and Culture Series). Charlottesville and London: University of Virginia Press, 2010, for New Books Online-19 (2011).
  • Review of Edward W. Soja, Seeking Spatial Justice. Minnesota: U of Minnesota P, 2010, for Le travail/Labor (2011).
  • Review of Richard A. Posner, Law and Literature, Revised and Enlarged Edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 2009, for New Books Online 19, 2009
  • Review of Michael Welch, Scapegoats of September the 11th: Hate Crimes and State Crimes in the War on Terror, for Le travail/Labor 61 (Spring 2008): 270-272.
  • Review of Jonah Raskin, American Scream: Allen Ginsberg's 'Howl' and the Making of the Beat Generation, University of California Press, 2004, for AmeriQuests 1.2, 2006.
  • Review of Open Borders: The Case Against Immigration Controls, in Journal of Refugee Studies 2001, 14, 205-7.
  • Review of Wai Chee Dimock, Residues of Justice: Literature, Law, Philosophy. University of California Press, 1997 [1996], for Literary Research 31, 1999.
  • Review of Richard A. Posner, Law and Literature, Revised and Enlarged Edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard UP, 1998, for Literary Research 30, 1999.
  • Review of Theodore Ziolkowski, The Mirror of Justice: Literary Reflections of Legal Crises. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1997, for Literary Research 29, 1998.
  • Review of Robin West, Caring for Justice. New York University Press, 1997, “The Limits of Caring in Justice” for Literary Research 16.32 (1999): 233-239.
  • Review of Michael Gardiner, The Dialogics of Critique: M.M. Bakhtin and the Theory of Ideology, for Slavic Review 53.1 (Spring 1994): 306-308.
  • Review of Peter Hitchcock, The Dialogics of the Oppressed. Minnesota: U of Minnesota P, 1992. for Discours social/Social Discourse 6.3-4, (1994).
  • Review of Stephen L. White, The Unity of the Self. Cambridge: MIT Press, 1991, for Discours social/Social Discourse 5.3 4 (1993): 192-194.
  • Review of M. Pierrette Malcuzynski. Entre-Dialogues avec Bakhtin, for Slavic Review 53.4 (Winter 1994): 1198-1199.
  • Review of Critical Studies II, 1 2, 1990: Mikhail Bakhtin and the Epistemology of Discourse, Ed. Clive Thomson, for Semiotic Inquiry 12.3.
  • Review of Pierre Bourdieu, Language and Symbolic Power. Harvard UP, 1981, for Modern Language Quarterly 52.4, December 1991, pp. 466-468.
  • Review of Terry Eagleton, Fredric Jameson and Edward Said, Nationalism, Colonialism, Literature. Minnesota: U Minnesota P, 1990, for Discours Social / Social Discourse 4.1 2, pp. 179-180.
  • Review of Cohan, Stevan and Linda M. Shires. Telling Stories: A Theoretical Analysis of Narrative Fiction. NY: Routledge, 1988, for Literary Research 18, pp. 16-17.
  • Review of Chamberlain, Daniel Frank, Narrative Perspective in Fiction: A Phenomenological Mediation of Reader, Text, and World. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 1990, for Literary Research 18, p.14.
  • Review of Literature, Language and Politics, Ed. Betty Jean Craige. Athens & London: U of Georgia P, 1988, for Literary Research 14 15, pp. 14-15.  
  • Review of George Levine, Darwin and the Novelists: Patterns of Science in Victorian Fiction. Cambridge MA: Harvard UP, 1988, for Literary Research 13 pp. 25-26.
  • Review of Violence and Truth: On the Work of René Girard. Paul Dumouchel, Ed. Stanford: Stanford UP, 1988, for Literary Research 11, pp. 12-13.
  • Review of Buitenhuis, Peter. The Great War of Words: British, American and Canadian Propaganda and Fiction, 1914-1933. Vancouver: U of BC P, 1987, for Literary Research 11, pp. 15-16.
  • Review of Dick, Susan et al. Essays for Richard Ellman: Omnium Gatherum. Montréal: McGill UP, 1989, for Discours social/Social Discourse Vol. 2, 4 pp. 207-208.
  • Review of Morton Beiser, Strangers at the Gate: The Boat People's First Ten Years in Canada. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1999 for Asian Pacific Migration Journal 9.3 2000, 387-388.
  • Review of Open Borders: The Case Against Immigration Controls. By Teresa Hayter. London; Sterling, Virginia: Pluto Press, 2000, for the Oxford Journal of Refugee Studies, 2001.
  • Review of Joe Thomas, Ethnocide: A Cultural Narrative of Refugee Detention in Hong Kong. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate, 1999 for Oxford Journal of Refugee Studies, 2000.
Courses at Vanderbilt
Maymester 2012 in Switzerland and Italy
Despite (or perhaps because of) the conservatism of the Swiss and the image of Switzerland as a place of political neutrality, banking and watch-making, the Swiss Alps have sheltered and inspired genera-tions of radical creative and political work, by a host of artists, Romantic poets and anarchists, includ-ing the likes of Wordsworth, Shelley and Byron. One reason for this is that the conservative Switzer-land is tightly guarded, and ruled in accordance with international legal instruments and laws that have made it a safe haven for persecuted persons, and a fertile ground for international organizations charged with upholding human rights. In this Maymester, Professor Robert Barsky will make this link between radicalism and creativity, safe haven and international law, by exploring institutes, specialists and natural settings in Switzerland and France. Beginning in Geneva, the students will be introduced to the international legal and non-governmental organizations that uphold international laws, notably the Red Cross and the United Nations High Commission for Refugees. For one week, students will meet with high-ranking officials from both organizations, and witness firsthand the kinds of work that is directed from the Geneva offices. While in Geneva, students will also have access to archives of work from radicals, notably Reclus, Kropotkin and Bakunin, as well as documents relating to Swiss experiments in radical reform, including the work of the Jura watchmakers. The class will then head up towards Montreux and Evian, where they will encounter the worlds of Byron, Mary and Percy Shelley and others through visits to the regions so dear to all of them, including the Chateau Chillon and the Villa Diodati. Then, on to will Mont Blanc, Chamonix and the Mont Blanc pass, where students will stay to enjoy the settings that so inspired poets and writers, most notably those of the Romantic era. Students will enjoy writing and reading poetry, and hiking in the areas where the sublime was given a name in verse. A range of other activities characteristic of Switzerland and France, including boating, skiing, and alpine exploration will complement the academic work and inspire new reflections into this sublime world.

Spring semester 2012
ENGL288. Sex and Censorship in the writings of D.H. Lawrence: A Bakhtinian Perspective. This course will discuss the overlapping visions of the mind/body relationship in both Bakhtin and Lawrence by assessing, in Lawrence’s critical writings and his fiction, how the desiring body can be represented in language. Lawrence’s interest in the ‘whole human body’ and his rejection of a purely metaphysical relationship to the world, -- including his sometimes-scandalous efforts to portray the sexual yearnings of the body in all of its cycles of desire and survival, -- are excellent starting points for an exploration of key Bakhtin concepts. Bakhtin’s rejection of formalistic approaches to language, and his emphasis upon dialogic interaction and answerability, help us to understand the central role of the “ carnivalesque” in his writings about Fyodor Dostoyevsky and in his long study of Rabelais and the carnival. We will also assess the treatment that Lawrence received in the hands of the Press and the censors, who almost unanimously condemned his overly-graphic descriptions of bodies, culminating with the famous trial against him for his great masterpiece, Lady Chatterley’s Lover.

FREN266, The Beat Generation's French Connection. There are remarkable connections between the Beats and the French, both in terms of French Quebec (via Jack Kerouac, whose first language was French and whose family hearkened from Quebec) and through the many ties they had, personally and intellectually, with France (and Algeria). In this course we will explore these overlaps by discussing key contemporaries, as well as an array of individuals who had personal relations with French and francophone literature and ideas. The approach we will take in this class reflects my growing belief that combining passionate academic pursuits with ludic, creative liberation, offers one powerful answer to the question I've been posing in my own teaching: 'What type of classroom setting and pedagogical approach is appropriate to the nature of the human mind, and in particular, the specific qualities with which each individual is endowed at birth?' The approach I've taken is captured by Barry Miles' description of the Beat Hotel in Paris: "The cheap rent and permissive atmosphere fostered a climate of freedom and creativity unfettered by financial concerns. As non-French speakers, they had no involvement with French culture and the issues of the day, nor were they restricted by rules with which the French lived, simply because they were ignorant of them. As Jean-Jacques Lebel put it, 'They were on an island, isolated in this magic little paradise full of rats and bad smells. But it was paradisical because it gave them the green light to be themselves without having to confront America.' The Beat Hotel offered the freedom to be idle or to work with passionate intensity, to while away the day in cafés or to talk through the night. It was a place where ideas could be developed in a community removed from conventional morality in the manner of the residents of the famous Impasse du Doyenné, the first bohemian colony." The assumption of course is that this idealized distinctive non-authoritarian setting will lead to the deepest, most passionate and most creative work we can do, individually, and as a group called FRENCH266.


Courses previously taught at Vanderbilt University

The Chomsky Effect! Hardcover 2007, paperback 2009
The Chomsky Effect, Cambridge, The MIT Press, 2008.

For more information, please contact Robert F. Barsky.
copyright Robert F. Barsky, 2006