TALK: “Representations in the Brain”: Neuroscientific Discourse and the Humanities

Deborah Jenson (Romance Studies, Global Health, Duke University)
Thursday, April 21, 2016 / 4:00 PM
McCune Conference Room, 6020 HSSB

From the Old Testament injunction “You shall not make to yourselves any graven image, or any likeness of anything” (Exodus 20:4) to Plato’s parable of the brain-like “Cave” into which artificial and distorted reflections of a distant reality are beamed like propaganda onto the retinas of the enchained prisoners, mimesis has often been depicted as a false representation of a phenomenological world that only capriciously and partially channels an original reality. A less defensive Aristotelian approach to the human being as the “mimetic animal” also has age old partisans, including the creative world of imitation charted by Ricoeur as “the kingdom of the as if” (1984, 1:53). In this approach, aesthetic representations such as literary works or images prompt us to test “sensuous and non-sensuous similarity” in our inevitably mediated (re-presented) relationship to the real. In the late twentieth century and the new millennium, however, something dramatically new occurred: it became possible to research questions of mimesis and representation without an external mimetic product such as an opera or a photograph. This talk serves as a guided tour of a few of the ways that neuroscientific research currently challenges us to engage with questions of representation on the level of “biomimesis,” including motor mirroring, developmental imitation, memory content and storage, mind reading, and the brain’s perception of the body. The goal is not to marginalize the traditional objects of humanities study, but to desegregate cultures of mimetic research and application.

Deborah Jenson’s literary history of the Haitian Revolution, Beyond the Slave Narrative: Politics, Sex, and Manuscripts in the Haitian Revolution, was published with Liverpool UP in 2011. A co-edited volume with medical historians Warwick Anderson and Richard E. Keller, Unconscious Dominions: Psychoanalysis, Colonial Trauma, and Global Sovereignties is just out with Duke UP. With Michaeline Crichlow and Pat Northover, the special issue from our 2010 “States of Freedom: Freedom of States” conference in Kingston, Jamaica, will be published soon in The Global South. An article on mirror neurons and literary bio-mimesis with neuropsychiatrist Marco Iacoboni will be out soon in California Italian Studies. The Haiti Humanities Laboratory that she co-directs with Laurent Dubois continues to generate collaborative projects with social and/or instrumental relevance, such as our Haiti: History Embedded in Amber artwork and catalog, and a forthcoming article and digital map on the history of Caribbean cholera in the CDC journal Emerging Infectious Diseases.

Deborah Jenson: “Representations in the Brain”: Neuroscientific Discourse and the Humanities

The IHC’s mission is to advance knowledge about human experience in cultural, historical, and social contexts and to do so through programs that foster human agency, social connectivity, and civic empowerment.

IHC events include lectures, seminars and conferences organized by IHC research focus groups and sub-units as well as events co-sponsored with campus departments. In addition, the IHC mounts year-long public programs on themes suggested by UCSB faculty and graduate students.

I was 34 year old TBI survivor and I try to use Music as a coping skill to enhance my comment skills for one old man makes me wanna punch is thrills of the deals so I walk away and I try to smoke some weed. hey girl what’s going on let’s have some good flowing time maybe you can shake a rod edges have a love connection. Tell me about your day what are you confessing to see do you believe in the mystery of Cupid streams life to live is simply just a mystical Swift night kiss from hurricane life nick

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CoA-UhQA9sU/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=  #tiktok #rap #artist #music #saintnick #trapsuecrew #polartwist #rapgod #wallmart #cartpusher #freestyle #grindthatya #grindvocals #anthem #growngod #leviathan #supergod #doodlenuts #doodlenuta #domecheck #glowup #stonerFreestyle #supergeek #supergear #funkrapgod

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CoA-UhQA9sU/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

You got a really good fashion design that’s a really nice dress. It looks really good on you the most exaggerating fantasy Takeaway mountain that you’ll ever see no matter what comes before you and me we will see each other in the next storm through the sea and the light will grow fantasy beyond no matter what I do I will always think of the star that just inspiring why did hand sick solo Jedi anyways hope you good get high later fashion blaze let’s move to top the island chaser rap ego fader back with storm salute the keys of west lighter she hot dog ham man got it and he drank all my kegs cause he was abusive alcoholism so press glow at what I say io I’m true rap god shield broze to bums stainless still with Mary Jane symbol so have nice day smoke that grade a must baby uh oh ah oh like rebel bones flow to show in see how my writting can help you make your destiny fix eye lost but the baby blue wig shoes sample the should be art design by John steed mitchel and me we could swing up the new investment pen And a vape counter control pen holder charger radio flavor band bangeang the nuts I doodle scratch pad blaster demo cash dr weed I pack key health heals limbo and brain damage

https://cash.app/$suitupop
Could use some god grace me sum cash candle bass lane shardiscoNo_tea_suGuard_lean_el_pluck_dickshinHappeNæźÿñätõíñûp https://cash.app/$suitupop 
Ñåžõmbêßtürñotes_@funk_fluter twitter cash hold hockey stocking full of plucker duck tree money fox lava speed up seat yo-yo rolling tomb bass battle shaper prom flavor up to squirtle blast exhaust fumes like a channel shake jack jerk wake of the Hammer Head elf Nick Messana the real dude Zeus eruption blood dock Italian and Irish blue eye suit up opreation funk me times

Deborah Jenson: “Representations in the Brain”: Neuroscientific Discourse and the Humanities

IHC UCSB