The Good 5 Cent Cigar

Issue date: 2/16/07 Section: News

Katie Eastman | Cigar Stephen Barber talks about his essay, "Woolf's Demon," at the URI Faculty Colloquium READ / WRITE Reading Series in the Hoffmann Room of Independence Hall.

02/16/07 - Literary theory was on the menu as the University of Rhode Island English Department held its first READ / WRITE event of the spring semester last night in the Hoffmann Room in Independence Hall.

URI English Professor Stephen Barber read from his essay, "Woolf's Demon." The essay is an excerpt from his manuscript "Exit Woolf," in which Barber analyzes Virginia Woolf's and Michel Foucault's philosophies regarding power and the self.

"I'm interested in the way Woolf, an author in England in the 1800s, and Foucault, a philosopher at the end of the 20th century, both theorize about forms of power and at the same time, about the possibility for resisting power," Barber said. "It's about subjectivity and agency, all in terms of war."

This relationship to war was connected to the present war in Iraq, particularly by English Professor John Leo, who was in the audience.

Leo remarked upon the connection between Barber's exploration of the self, and the relationship to the power of the state to the U.S. government.

"The state has become a house of philosophy [by] managing identities, attaching identities to individuals [and] exploring the logic of ethics," Leo said. "The [neo-conservatives] of the Bush administration are imposing ethics and morals."

Barber responded when he said the works of Woolf and Foucault advocate participation in the government, but also a certain level of detachment.

"Virginia Woolf writes about how women need agency, women and other outsiders needing agency," Barber said. "The only way to ensure this is through professions within the state, but it is important not to reproduce the worst of the state."

Barber said Foucault's philosophies regarding the self versus the state were evident following Sept. 11, when there was a will of citizens to separate from the state.

"Foucault's 'Care of the Self' is important because it connects us to society, increases our relationship to the world, while at the same time it intensifies a distance from the action," Barber said. "'Care of the Self' is an assertion of irreducible independence."

English Professor Peter Covino, director of the READ / WRITE series, said the material was "esoteric and difficult," but at the same time appropriate for the audience.

"In the READ / WRITE series, we always have one faculty member come speak about theory, mostly for the graduate community," Covino said. "It's difficult, but this is how you have to be to get a Ph.D. I think it's a good stretch."

Covino said the faculty colloquium segment of the READ / WRITE is geared toward faculty, graduate students and "the advanced undergraduate."

Covino said others authors participating are more accessible to the general community.

"Our next speaker, [Maria Mazziotti Gillan] is much more known as someone who believes in working class issues and dislikes theory," Covino said. "We also have a lot of emerging writers who are very young, so it should be fun."

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