Civilization, according to Freud, is a humanist enterprise, the feat of an aggressive instinct that is specific to humans and brings us to exploit the very nature of which we are also a part. Pitting man against man (and woman), race against race, nation against nation it appears to destroy the very happiness we aim to achieve through it. This fact of civilization is made ever more apparent during the first half of the 20th century, and since, as Freud also emphasizes, we are not easily rid of our past (even as we may never correctly remember it), so the memories of war, violence and hatred continue to influence writing and thinking on into the 21st century. In this colloquium we will be especially interested in the ways that the past haunts the present, threatening our ability to know ourselves and our loved ones and to trust in humanity. |