November Events in New York
November Events in New York
November Events in New York
Susie Linfield discusses her new book, The Cruel Radiance, with Kira Brunner Don, Executive Editor of Lapham’s Quarterly
Since the early days of photography, critics have told us that photographs of political violence–of torture, mutilation, and death–are exploitative, deceitful, even pornographic. To look at these images is voyeuristic; to turn away is a gesture of respect. With The Cruel Radiance: Photography and Political Violence (University of Chicago Press), Dissent editorial board member Susie Linfield attacks those ideas head-on, arguing passionately that viewing such photographs–and learning to see the people in them–is an ethically and politically necessary act that connects us to our modern history of violence and probes our capacity for cruelty.
Contending with critics from Walter Benjamin and Bertolt Brecht to Susan Sontag and the postmoderns–and analyzing photographs from such events as the Holocaust, China’s Cultural Revolution, and recent terrorist acts–Linfield explores the complex connection between photojournalism and the rise of human rights ideals. In the book’s concluding section, she examines the indispensable work of Robert Capa, James Nachtwey, and Gilles Peress, and asks how photography has–and should–respond to the increasingly nihilistic trajectory of modern warfare. A bracing and unsettling book, The Cruel Radiance convincingly demonstrates that if we hope to alleviate political violence, we must first truly understand it–and to do that, we must begin to look.
Thursday, November 11, at 7 p.m.
Book Culture
536 W. 112th St, New York, NY (between Broadway and Amsterdam)
near the 1 train
RSVP or questions: 212-316-3120 or editors [at] dissentmagazine [dot] org
Michael Walzer on Global and Local Justice
Can a single theory provide useful accounts of global justice and justice in particular places? If different theoretical arguments are necessary, what makes the difference? And do the arguments connect in any way? Dissent co-editor Michael Walzer presents this year’s Joseph and Gwendolyn Straus Public Lecture on “Global and Local Justice.”
Tuesday, November 16, at 6 p.m.
NYU’s Lipton Hall
108 W. 3rd St, New York, NY (betweenn MacDougal and Sullivan)
RSVP or questions: straus [at] nyu [dot] edu
The 15th Annual Irving Howe Memorial Lecture: Anthony Appiah on “The Life and Death of Honor”
This year’s Irving Howe Memorial Lecture features Kwame Anthony Appiah, the Laurance S. Rockefeller University Professor Of Philosophy and the University Center for Human Values at Princeton University. His numerous books include a memoir, In My Father’s House, as well as Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers (2006), and his most recent work, Experiments in Ethics (2008).
Wednesday, November 17, at 6 p.m.
CUNY Center for the Humanities, Elebash Recital Hall
365 Fifth Ave, New York, NY (between 34th and 35th St)
RSVP or questions: 212-817-2005
