Weeks after the death of Nobel Prize-winning author Alice Munro last year, her daughter Andrea Skinner disclosed the sexual abuse she'd suffered as a child—abuse about which Munro had known and stayed silent. The disclosure is but one of many revelations in recent years to upend the legacy of a cultural icon. Neil Gaiman, Louis CK, Jean Vanier, and Avital Ronell are only a few public figures to be reassessed in the wake of accounts of sexual abuse. Similarly, disputed claims to Indigenous ancestry touted by artists including novelist Joseph Boyden and singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie have generated outrage and heartbreak among Indigenous groups and innumerable admirers, compounding generational traumas.

How do we address works of deep cultural meaning when the moral failings of their creators are exposed? Karen Guth identifies various responses to what she terms “tainted legacies”: from the Separationist view that the actions of the creator have no bearing on the work to the Abolitionist rejection of all work from a discredited creator. Guth advocates instead for what she calls the Reformer position, which seeks to unearth the social and institutional roots that enable abuses, with an imperative to learn from the past so we can create conditions of justice for the future. Guth's call for a reckoning with the past that charts a way forward guides this seminar. How might we excavate the conditions that facilitate and perpetuate inexcusable behaviour from artistic, religious, or cultural authorities? What can we learn by returning to texts that we now see in a new light? How might we guide new formations of cultural production and reception? Where can we find seeds of regeneration in troubled and troubling histories?

Potential topics may include:

• trauma-informed pedagogy when teaching works involving tainted legacies
• the status of critical chestnuts like the biographical fallacy
• conditions that shape our affective responses to cultural artifacts and their makers
• historical moments that can inform our understanding of current ones
• private vs public responses to tainted legacies
• parasociality and identification in the digital age
• artistic and grassroots responses to tainted legacies
• envisioning accountability

This will be a virtual-only panel. All presentations will be delivered via Zoom regardless of whether the presenters are in-person.

Please submit an abstract of 300 words and a short (approx. 50-word) bio statement to the NeMLA portal via this link: https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/21683

Any questions can be directed to Amanda Paxton at Trent University Durham: akvpaxton@gmail.com