Comparative Literature

 

Gabriela Basterra received her Ph.D. in Romance Languages and Literatures from Harvard University in 1997, and has taught at NYU ever since.  She works on philosophy and literature as a member of both the Comparative Literature and the Spanish and Portuguese Department, and has been a visiting professor at Princeton University. Between 2004-10 Professor Basterra also held the position of Directeur de Programme at the Collège International de Philosophie in Paris. Her program "Autonomie Tragique: Interaction entre le politique et l'éthique", included her seminars "La mort tragique comme évasion" (2005), "Éthiques du brisement" (2006), “Brisement éthique, désir du politique” (2007), “Se faire signe” (2008), “Poétique du laps” (2009) and “Être inspiré” (2010). She has contributed to major events on Emmanuel Levinas, Paul Ricoeur, Ernesto Laclau, political subjectivity and rhetoric, and her lectures have been broadcast on Radio France Culture.  Her book Seductions of Fate: Tragic Subjectivity, Ethics, Politics (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), has been translated into French as Séductions du destin (Éditions La Phocide, 2010, forthcoming).  She has co-edited Quel sujet du politique? (2010), a monographic issue of the Collège International de Philosophie journal Rue Descartes, and is working on two book projects – The Incessant Subject. Kant, Levinas, Lacan; Ethical and Poetic Address – and on a collection of her French essays, Hétéronomies. Her recent articles include "I Love to Hate my Life or the Allure of Guilt" (2004), "El respeto como evasión" (2005), "Résister aux sirènes de l'impuissance" (2006), “Ethics, Perhaps” (2007), "Activité au-delà de toute activité" (2007), “Choreography of Fate: Lorca’s Reconfigurations of the Tragic” (2008), “Does Creativity Deny Itself?” (2009), “Auto-Heteronomy or Levinas’s Philosophy of the Same” (2010) and “Subjectivité inouïe” (2010).  Prof. Basterra is a recipient of the Golden Dozen Award for Excellence in Teaching.