Yasco Horsman
University Lecturer
- Name
- Dr. Y. Horsman
- Telephone
- +31 71 527 2777
- y.horsman@hum.leidenuniv.nl
Yasco Horsman is a University Lecturer at the Leiden University Centre for the Arts in Society.
Research
Theatres of Justice: Judging Staging and Working Through in Arendt, Brecht and Delbo
What role do legal trials have in collective processes of coming to 
terms with a history of mass violence? How does the theatrical structure of a criminal trial facilitate and limit national processes of healing and learning from the past? This study begins with the widely publicized, historic trials of three Nazi war criminals, Eichmann, Barbie, and Priebke, whose explicit goal was not only to punish, but also to establish an officially sanctioned version of the past. The Truth and Reconciliation commissions in South America and South Africa added a therapeutic goal, acting on the belief that a trial can help bring about a moment of closure.
Horsman challenges this belief by reading works that reflect on the relations among pedagogy, therapy, and legal trials. Philosopher Hannah Arendt, poet Charlotte Delbo, and dramaturg Bertolt Brecht all produced responses to historic trials that reopened the cases those trials sought to close, bringing to center stage aspects that had escaped the confines of their legal frameworks.
Curriculum Vitae
Yasco Horsman is University Lecturer of Film and Literary studies at Leiden University. He holds a Ph.D. in comparative literature from Yale University and is author of Theaters of Justice: Judging Staging and Working Through in Arendt, Brecht and Delbo (Stanford University Press, 2010), on the relations between trials, theatre and psychoanalysis. He co-editor of a special issue of Law and Literature on Legal Bodies: Corpus, Persona, Communitas (2016), and has published essays on literature (Kafka, Beckett, Coetzee), cinema (Resnais), Graphic Novels (Spiegelman, Ware, Clowes), Animation (Mickey), drones and flipbooks. He is currently working on a book on Radio and Modernism and collecting notes for a genealogy of the “funny animal” figure in early animation and comic strips.
Together with Pepita Hesselberth, he organizes a monthly series of NICA Lectures at Leiden University called Lectures in Media Art Politics. For more info, see here.
University Lecturer
- Faculty of Humanities
- Centre for the Arts in Society
- Literatuurwetenschap
- Peters M.A. & Horsman Y. (2024), Co-mix, re-mix: a conversation between comics scholars Yasco Horsman and Mathijs Peters. In: Hengel G. van & Purtić I. (Eds.), Remix comix. Novi Sad: LED-Art. 116-119.
- Houppermans J.M.M., Verstraten P., Dijkhuizen J.F. van, Horsman Y., Vieveen B., De Kesel M., Hees A. van & Kroon J. de (Eds.) (2020), De Tijd hangt uit zijn naad - Hamlet en de psychoanalyse. Psychoanalyse en Cultuur no. 13. Antwerpen: Garant.
- Horsman Y. (2019), Remember Childhood? Forget it. Strips, psychoanalyse, en de dood van de kindertijd, tijdschrift voor psychoanalyse 25(3): 172-183.
- Horsman Y. (26 November 2019), Leiden University Expands Graphic Novel and Comic Book Collection. Leiden: University Library (Leiden University). [web article].
- Horsman Y. (2018), Een pauze, een snik en een hoorbare siddering Compassie, ubuntu en de stem in Antjie Krogs Country of My Skull. In: Bouteligier Claudia & Slootweg Timo (Eds.), Het empathisch supplement in recht en literatuur. Kritische Studies in Recht en Literatuur no. 3.
- Horsman Y. (2018), OK, computer? Understanding cybernetic personhood. In: Hesselberth P., Houwen J., Peeren E. & Vos R. de (Eds.), Legibility in the age of signs and machines. Thamyris/Intersecting: Place, Sex and Race no. 33. Amsterdam: Brill/Rodopi. 133-146.
- Horsman Y. (2018), Strip, Roman, Serie: Detectives, Hackers en Psychoanalytici in Sherlock en Mr. Robot. In: Verstraten Peter & Houppermans Sjef (Eds.), Oog om Oog: Psychoanalyse en tv-series no. 9. Antwerpen: Garant. 95-116.
- Horsman Y. (28 December 2018), Stan Lee (1922-2018) De Dood en Wederopstanding van een Stripauteur. Wetenschap.nu. Amsterdam: Wetenschap.nu / Science on Air. [blog entry].
- Horsman Y. (2017), Of flipbooks and funny animals: Chris Ware's 'Quimby the Mouse'. In: Hesselberth Pepita & Poulaki Maria (Eds.), Compact Cinematics: The Moving Image in the Age of Bit-Sized Media. London: Bloomsbury. 153-164.
- Horsman Y. (2017), Uitzending Gemist? Psychoanalyse ontmoet de tv, Tijdschrift voor Psychoanalyse 23(3): 202-205.
- Hesselberth P. & Horsman Y. (2017), Affect. In: Bloois J. de, Cauwer S. de & Masschelein A. (Eds.), 50 Key Terms in Contemporary Cultural Theory. Antwerpen: Pelckmans Pro. 29-34.
- Horsman Y. & Hesselberth P. (2017), Posthumanism. In: Bloois J. de, Cauwer S. de & Masschelein A. (Eds.), 50 Key Terms in Contemporary Cultural Theory. Antwerpen: Pelckmans Pro. 252-256.
- Horsman Y. (2016), Braying, Howling, Growling for Justice: Animal Personhood in Law, Literature and Cinema, Law & Literature 28(3): 319-334.
- Horsman Y. & Korsten F.W. (Eds.) (2016), Legal Bodie: Corpus / Persona / Communitas. Law and Literature. New York: Routledge.
- Horsman Y. & Korsten F.W.A. (2016), Introduction: legal bodies: corpus/persona/communitas, Law & Literature 28(3): 277-285.
- Horsman Y. (2015), The Rise of Comic Studies, Oxford Art Journal 38(1): 148-152.
- Horsman Y. (2015), Steamboat Willie: Towards a Mickey Mouse Version of Apparatus Theory, Empedocles: European Journal for the Philosophy of Communication 5(1-2): 75-80.
- Horsman Yasco (2014), Graphic Novel. In: Michael Kelly (Ed.), Oxford Encyclopedia of Aesthetics. Oxford and New York: Oxford University Press.
- Yasco Horsman (2014), Radiofonisch Delirium: Beckett, Radio, Psychose. In: Houppermans S., Kroon J. de & Verstraten P. (Eds.), Psychose en de Kunsten. Antwerpen - Apeldoorn: Garant. 129-144.
- Yasco Horsman (2014), The Infancy of Art: Comics, Childhood, Picture Books, Journal of Graphic Novels and Comics 5(3): 323-335.
- Horsman Y. (2013), The Sounds of the Frogs at Night: Kiarostami's Philosophy of Cinema. In: Seyed-Gohrab A.A. & Talattof K. (Eds.), Conflict and Development in Iranian Film. Leiden: Leiden University Press. 19-30.
- Horsman Y. (2013), "Psychoanalysis and Comics, Werner, Feldstein, Kamen" Conference: Ethics under Cover: Comics, Medicine and Society, Brighton and Sussex Medical School (Brighton and Sussex Medical School). [design].
- Horsman Y. (2013), "Listening to Art: On Theodor Reik's notion of the Third Ear" (University of Essex). [design].
- Horsman Y. (2013), "Hoe zit het ook alweer met de 'male gaze'?, De Filmkrant 2013(October): .
- Horsman Yasco (2013), "Strips op de Divan?" ["Strips op de Divan?"] (translation: Horsman Y.), Tijdschrift voor Psychoanalyse 19 (2013)(4): 2.
- Horsman Y. (2012), Law, Theatre and Violence in Samson (1660). In: Bloemendal J. & Korsten F.W.A. (Eds.), Joost van den Vondel (1587 - 1679): Dutch Playwright in the Golden Age. Leiden: Brill. 445-459.
- Horsman Y. (2011), Literature after Radio: Tuning in to Ivo Michiels's "Alfacyclus", Journal of Dutch Literature 2(1): .
- Horsman Y. (2011), Theaters of Justice: Judging, Staging, and Working Through in Arendt, Brecht, and Delbo. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press.
- Horsman Y. (2010), "Demystificatie, Desidentificatie en Overidentificatie: Over Zizek's Brecht.". In: Schokker J. & Kesel M. de (Eds.), Zizek: Kritiek en Daad. Kampen: Klement.
- Weel A.H. van der, Langlet I., Courtois L., Tilleuil J.-L., Migozzi J., Dall'Asta M., Pagello F., Horsman Y., Odaert O., Letourneux M., Boumedienne F., Levet N., Latronico C.R.R. & Chambers K.I. (2010), EPOP Virtual Museum (CD-rom). EPOP. [other].
- Weel A.H. van der, Pagello F., Odaert O., Latronico C., Chambers K.I., Dall'Asta M., Boumedienne F., Horsman Y., Courtois L., Tilleuil J.-L., Artiaga L., Letourneux M., Levet N., Migozzi J. & Langlet I. (2010), Popular Roots of European Culture (website). EPOP. [other].
- Anrooij W. van, Dijk Y. van, Horsman Y., Montijn I. & Peeters C. (2010), Dr. Wijnaendts Francken-Prijs 2009. Advies van de Commissie voor de voordracht, Jaarboek van de Maatschappij der Nederlandse Letterkunde te Leiden 2008-2009: 172-174.
- Horsman Y. (2010), "Breakdowns! Het naleven van de strip in grafische romans van Spiegelman, Ware, en Clowes", Frame. Tijdschrift voor Literatuurwetenschap 23(1): .
- Horsman Y. (2008), "Ik ben niets meer dan een fotograaf": fotografie en de ontdekking van de psychoanalyse. Houppermans S., Kesel M. de & Verstraten P. (Eds.), Van verbeelding gesproken: psychoanalyse en fotografie. . Amsterdam: Rozenberg Publishers. 8-11.
- Horsman Y. (2008), Like a Dog: Narrative and Confession in J.M. Coetzee's Disgrace and The Lives of Animals. Alphen E. van, Bal M. & Smith C. (Eds.), The Rhetoric of Sincerity. . Stanford: Stanford University Press. 144-156.
- Horsman Y. (2007), Geraas, gegons, gezoem en gefluister: het oceanische bij Freud, Chopin en Ozon. Houppermans S. & Kruk R. (Eds.), De zee, de zee in literaturen wereldwijd. . Amsterdam: Rozenberg. 203-214.
- Horsman Y. (2006), 'Een schreeuw zonder einde: Freud en Resnais over de verwerking van het verleden. Houppermans S., Kesel M. de & Verstraten P. (Eds.), Scenes uit een huwelijk: psychoanalyse en film. . Amsterdam: Dutch University Press. 35-42.