Poetics and Theory Lecture Series Invites Daniel Heller-Roazen
In March 2021, the Poetics and Theory lecture series invited Daniel Heller-Roazen to present his new book, Absentees: On Variously Missing Persons (Zone Books, 2021). From literature to legal codes and religious rites, missing, diminished, deceased and uncounted persons play complex yet also constant roles. These roles were the focus of the talk, which, departing from a few exemplary cases (Hawthorne’s “Wakefield", the capitis deminutio of Roman law, and Kafka’s Hunter Gracchus fragments) probed the status of “nonpersons,” grasped as persons who, in diverse ways, remain or fail to be demanding of our attention. The talk was followed by a discussion moderated by Zakir Paul. To read more about Absentees, see this recent review by Brian Dillon.