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Secrecy, Conversion, Historicity

H.P. Blavatsky’s occult writings set the stage for speculations about crypto-conversion, conscience, and responsibility, which subsequently engaged Derrida, among other thinkers.

Speaker: 
Gauri Viswanathan
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Speaker's affiliation
Columbia University
Name of Series
Contemporary History & The Future of Memory
Sponsoring Department
Division of Literatures, Languages, and Cultures (Stanford University)
Event Date
Saturday, March 23, 2013
Description

Gauri Viswanathan argues that H.P. Blavatsky’s occult writings set the stage for speculations about crypto-conversion, conscience, and responsibility, which subsequently engaged Derrida, among other thinkers. She looks at how the concept of the secret is deployed in such work to signal the histories that have been occluded in the course of religious change.