The second “Voices & Agencies” workshop, on “Self-Writing in the Age of Un-selfing,” will take place at the JFKI on February 24-25, both online and in presence. The workshop engages the paradoxical coexistence of self-expression and self-abnegation in early American writing, when the devaluation of individual voice unfolded through voluminous autobiographies, journals, and correspondence. The mutable quality and intermittent visibility of voice and self will be addressed in keynotes by Gordon Sayre (“Pierre-Esprit Radisson: Captive, Renegade, or Entrepreneur?” on Thursday, Feb. 24, 6:00-7:30 pm) and Matthew Pethers (“Nobody’s Talkin’ at Me: The Fictionality of the Servant’s Voice in Early American Literature,” on Friday, Feb. 25, 4:30-6:00pm).

Keynotes are open to the public and you are cordially invited to join us here:
https://fu-berlin.webex.com/fu-berlin-en/j.php?MTID=m16d8e024e5e23536c9e15ae73698cb40

 Password: voices

“Voices & Agencies: America and the Atlantic, 1600-1865” brings together European and American scholars from the fields of American Studies, Postcolonial Studies, British Studies, and Romance Studies. In six workshops across three years, the network addresses questions of agency and voice in the Atlantic world.

Local organizer: Cameron Seglias (FU Berlin). Co-organized by Ilka Brasch (Hannover), Elena Furlanetto (Duisburg-Essen), and Alanna Bossle (Duisburg-Essen).