Introduction: Reading Now, after Helen Tartar

Abstract

honor of Helen Tartar, the editorial director of Fordham University Press, who was killed in a car accident on 3 March 2014.1 A legendary humanities editor responsible for having secured the reputation of Stanford University Press as a beacon for critical theory and then having brought to Fordham a stellar array of titles in critical theory, philosophy, literature, anthropology, and religious studies, Helen changed the landscape of academic publishing. To many, her death was a shock of historic proportions, the abrupt cutting of of a stillunfolding epoch of critical theory, an era of interdisciplinary renewal across the humanities and beyond, and the coming-ofage of multimedia comparative literary studies. It is still too soon to measure the full impact of Helen’s editorial genius. he aim of the May colloquium, titled “Reading Now, ater Helen Tartar” and organized by Fordham’s comparative literature program in conjunction with Fordham University Press, was to begin the work of assessing Helen’s far-reaching inluence, including the signiicance of her editorial vision for the way we read now. “Reading Now, ater Helen Tartar” sought to work through and beyond the shock of her sudden loss, a shock that has been felt far and wide by countless scholars, authors, editors, and readers. he organizers of the American Comparative Literature Association’s annual meeting at New York University arranged a memorial event on 22 March; and Fordham University Press held a memorial at Fordham University on 8 April. Each event featured tributes from a wide range of authors, friends, and colleagues.2 To Judith Butler, speaking both personally and for the many other authors (famous and less well known) whose work depended on Helen’s editorial engagement and steadfast advocacy of scholarship and theory, Helen’s loss epitomizes the precarious situation of all current work in the humanities. he May colloquium was designed, in part, to take up the challenge Butler later articulates—to do justice to Helen’s legacy CHRIS GOGWILT, professor of English