Description: What types of interpretations come up when someone reads Herman Melville’s The Confidence-Man in the light of recent events or in the context of today’s society? While a lack of confidence in political institutions is a major part of news reports today, presenters also focus on social media, gender interactions, presidential politics, the afterlives of poststructuralism, paranoia, and historical connections.

Speakers

Meredith Farmer, Wake Forest U

Samuel Otter, U of California, Berkeley

Russ Castronovo, U of Wisconsin, Madison

Peter J. Bellis, U of Alabama, Birmingham

Justine S. Murison, U of Illinois, Urbana

Presider

Rodrigo Lazo, U of California, Irvine