“Determination” is a concept applicable to subjective agency, historical circumstance, and formal particularity. If determinism posits the way things must be, an account of determination is concerned not only with how something is but also how it might be otherwise: with both the genesis and possible transformation of states of affairs. How might attention to poetic determination help us to grasp the mediation of agency, history, and form by the literary work? This one-day workshop will take up this question through the resources of both philosophy and literature, foregrounding poetry and poetics as a key site for thinking through conceptual and political problems.

Confirmed Speakers:

Nathan Brown, Concordia University

Kyoo Lee, CUNY

Stephen Ross, Concordia University

Eileen John, University of Warwick

Emma Mason, University of Warwick

Registration and other details to follow soon. Watch this space.