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| Two Funerals and a Nation: The Politics of Contagious Affect | | Posted Monday, January 30, 2012 1:27 PM |
| The Department of English, Film and Theatre, and the Affect Research Cluster on Affect present Prof. Marusya Bociurkiw, from Ryerson University's School of Radio and Television Arts, who will give a talk on February 16, at 2:30 p.m., in the Haney Reading Room, 625 Fletcher Argue Building. The title of her talk is “Two Funerals and a Nation: The Politics of Contagious Affect.”
In her research on Canadian television, Prof. Bociurkiw examined the rise of affective nationalist content on Canadian television after the 1995 Quebec referendum, looking at how Canadian television worked overtime to resolve the messy contradictions of nationhood. She will talk about her application of affect theory to questions of national identity and nationalism, while also examining the death and state funeral of Jack Layton.
From television commentary to the chalk memorial at Toronto City Hall, she will track moments of embodied feeling – lumps in throats, watering eyes – on and off the small screen, and the ways in which the affects of sadness, grief, embarrassment, and pride became contagious as they mingled and transformed one another in the contact zones of kitchens, city squares, and even taxi cabs. Is this particular kind of collective, contagious affect that circulates around public figures antithetical to social change? Or can contagious national feeling move beyond the limits of electoral politics and nationalism? This talk will be accompanied by video clips and photographs. |
|  |  | For more information, contact: Katie Man Media Lab Technician English, Film & Theatre katie_man@umanitoba.ca
Phone: (204) 474-7411
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