We would like to cordially invite you the Compromise in Modern Literature Lecture of Barbara Buchenau on June 25, 2-4, R11T00D05, where Courtney will lecture on Max Czollek from 3 to 4 pm (following a lecture by Barbara Buchenau on literary compromises). Additionally, we invite you to participate in the Anglophone literatures and cultures research colloquium on July 1, 6:15 pm R12 R04 B02. For this colloquium Dr. Courtney Hodrick will be submitting a paper entitled “Tradition Without Continuity in Hannah Arendt’s On Revolution,” for discussion (will be sent on Wednesday, June 25).

Paper Summary: In “Tradition Without Continuity in Hannah Arendt’s On Revolution,” I analyze the role that the concept of the “break in tradition” plays in this book. I argue that, whereas Arendt often treats the break in tradition as a specific historical event, and generally presents the lost tradition in elegiac tones, On Revolution offers a different vision of the break in tradition that treats it as an almost metaphysical aspect of the human condition and highlights the generative possibilities for new political forms that are enabled by leaving old traditions behind. I discuss her understanding of the American founders’ use of tradition, including the stories of Moses and Aeneas, as a patchwork of freely chosen appropriations rather than an organic, continuous whole and I argue that this model of relating to tradition allows for a national identity that is free from ethnonationalist conceptions of belonging. I also discuss the possible critiques of this approach to history, particularly their reliance on a settler-colonial conception of America as “empty.” Finally, I explore whether Arendt’s understanding of the role of history in the American founding and the role of tradition in American national self-conception can shed light on Arendt’s understanding of and criticisms of the State of Israel.