Pleasure and Power

[Peto Andrea]

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The Program on Gender & Culture of the Central European University,
Budapest, in association with the OSI Network WomenAEs Program, the
Goethe Institut and the Austrian Science and Research Liaison Office
Budapest cordially invite you to an International Conference "Pleasure
and Power in a Gendered Perspective" May 23-26, 1999

Further information and registartion : Katrin Kremmler, CEU Program on
Gender & Culture, 1051 Budapest, V. Nador u.9, Tel. 327 3034,
<kremmler at ceu.hu>

May 23, 24 at the CEU, 1051 Budapest, Nador u. 9
May 25 at the Goethe Institut, 1061 Budapest, Andrassy ut 24
Language: English

The gendering of pleasure and its uses has remained one of the less
examined aspects of the gendering of power. Feminist theory has
usually approached this field via critiques of the objectification of
womenAEs bodies by the male - dominated pleasure industry or in terms
of the manipulation of women through consumerism. Much less attention
has been devoted to women as active seekers after/ subjects of
pleasure. What are the historical, cultural, psychological and,
possibly,  structural reasons for this silence? What are its social
and  political outcomes? Are we, perhaps, reproducing the site of
victimization while fighting it always in negative terms? Could we
learn something in this respect from women in other epochs and
cultures? Can we envisage the ideological and institutional dimensions
of a future more friendly to womenAEs enjoyment?
 Situated at the cross-roads between East and West, the conference
 will provide the space for an interdisciplinary discussion of these
 questions among feminist scholars of different cultural origins. We
 hope that the conference will promote cross-cultural dialogues and
 highlight the specific perspective of Central and East European
 countries with respect to gender issues and feminist theory.

Saturday, May 22

Special announcement:
As a part of the writers' workshop
BALKAN PERSPECTIVES: WRITING ACROSS THE BORDERS

organised by Southeast European Studies in cooperation with
the CEU Program on Gender & Culture

on May 22nd, 1999, at 18:00 (CEU auditorium)

literary readings will be held, with the participation of
distinguished authors from the region:

Miljenko Jergovic
Alma Lazarevska
Miglena Nikolchina
Dubravka UgreUEic
Dragan Velikic

Reception to follow.

Sunday, May 23

CEU Monument Building, Nador u. 9, Popper Room (1st floor)

13:00 Registration and catered lunch (Gellner Foyer, 1st floor)

14:30 to 15:00 Introduction by Miglena Nikolchina, CEU Program on
Gender & Culture

15:00 to 16:30
Pleasure, Power, Forces
Elizabeth Grosz, SUNY at Buffalo, USA: Forces
Nadepesetada Eaeinoviee, University of Zagreb, Croatia: Anhedonia or
the Fear of Pleasure Susan Varney, SUNY at Buffalo, USA: The Cause of
Sex; or, the Impasse of Liberal Theory

Coffee break

17:00 to 18:30
Pleasures of Politics/Politics of Pleasure
Elizabeth Minnich, The Union InstituteAEs Graduate School for
Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences, Charlotte, USA: Risking the
Pleasures of Politics Andrea Peto, CEU, Budapest, Hungary: Pleasures
with Power: Representation of Sexuality in Juridical Discourse in
Post-War Hungary Nicole Fermon, Fordham University, USA: Democracy and
the King's Two Bodies: Pleasures of the Clinton Presidency

Dinner

Monday, May 24
CEU Monument Building, Nador u. 9, Popper Room (1st floor)

10:00 to 11:30
Sacred Suffering and Other Pleasures
Tatyana Barchunova, University of Novosibirsk, Russia: Irony and
Social Crisis Elena Gapova, European Humanities University Minsk,
Belarus: Engineering Motherhood: Power and Powerlessness within the
Culture of Repression Marina Blagojeviee, Belgrade University,
Yugoslavia: The Pleasure of Self/Sacrifice: Identity and/or
Responsibility

Coffee break

12:00 to 13:30
The (Un)pleasures of Representation
Frances Ferguson, Johns Hopkins University, USA: Love Talk and Hate
Speech: Why Pornography Matters (and How Judith Butler is Mistaken)
Susanne v. Falkenhausen, Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany: The
Pleasure(s) of Representation: the Case of the "Calendrier des Femmes"
1793 Hanne Loreck, Humboldt  University, Berlin, Germany: Visual Body
Representations of the 90s: Between the Real and Desire

Lunch break

15:00 to 16:30
Pleasures Ordered and Disordered
Louise Vasvari, SUNY at Stony Brook, USA: The Power and Pleasures of
Women: Representations of Disorderly Women in the Medieval Vernacular
Franz Eder, University of Vienna, Austria: The Gendering of Sexual
Pleasures in the 18th and 19th Centuries Irina Zherebkina, Kharkov
State University / Kharkov Center for Gender Studies, Ukraine: "Fair
Lady": Woman as Construction of Pleasure and Power in Russian Culture

Coffee break

17:00 to 18.30
Pleasure and Empowerment
Michaela Mudure, Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj, Romania: Gender and
Power in Bread Givers by Anzia Yezierska Giovanna Covi, University of
Trento, Italy: Sexuality as Resistance to Colonialism in Jamaica
Kincaid's Works Miglena Nikolchina, CEU, Budapest, Hungary: Love
Triangles and Intellectual Couples

Dinner
 Tuesday, May 25
Goethe Institut, Andrassy ut 24 (Gallery entrance)

10:00 to 11:30
The Discreet Pleasures of Consumerism
Dubravka UgreUEiee, writer: Stereotypes of Women
Tatyana Kotzeva, Southwest University, Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria: Soap
Opera and  Romanticised Pleasure: Bulgarian Women's Mass Culture in
the 90s Andrea Ellmeier/ Monika Bernold, University of Vienna,
Austria: "Politics of Pleasure": Constructions of the Female Consumer
/ Audience in the 1920s.

Coffee break

12:00 to 13:30
Secrets of Pleasure
Branka Arsiee, University of Belgrade, Yugoslavia: How to Write a Love
Letter Liana Borghi, University of Florence, Italy: Possessing the
Secret of Joy Elizabeth Harvey, University of Western Ontario, Canada:
The Secrecy of Female Pleasure: Geography, Early Modern Anatomies, and
Clitoral Colonisation

Lunch break

15:00 to 16:30
More Secrets of Pleasure
Milena Kirova, Sofia University, Bulgaria: The Pleasure of  Pleasure
in Literary Criticism Lucy Tatman, Australian National University,
Canberra, Australia: Thou Shall Have Pleasure in Abundance: the Power
of  Feminist Theology Biljana KaUEiee, Center for WomenAEs Studies,
Zagreb, Croatia: Leisure as Pleasure


Coffee break

17:00 to 18:30
>From One Pleasure to an Other
Sneja Gunew, University of British Columbia, Canada: The Pleasure of
Eating Others: Cross-Cultural Perspective on Women and Food Jasmina
Lukiee, CEU, Budapest, Hungary: The Kitchen as the Site of Pleasure and
Despair Anne McClintock, New York University, USA: Skin Hunger

18:30 to 19:00
Closing Remarks

20:00 Pleasure & Power - Party at the Kiraly Bath