This reading group, or 'communion', focuses on the work of Georges Bataille and his henchmen, including but not limited to Andre Masson, Roger Caillois, Michel Leiris, Pierre Klossoski, Raymond Queneau. Alexandre Kojève and Lev Shestov, as well as literary figures including Colette Peignot, Jacques Vaché, Lautréamont, Marques de Sade, Baudelaire, Catherine of Siena and Meister Eckart.

A few key texts will be analysed:

Le Coupable (1944) Guilty

L'Erotisme (1957) Eroticism

La Haine de la Poésie (1947) The Hatred of Poetry

L'Impossible (1962) The Impossible

La literature et le Mal (1957) Literature and Evil

Open to all.

Speaker: Rachel Fraser (Oxford)

Title: 'Narrative Testimony'

Contributors:

Alison Downham Moore (Western Sydney University)

Lisa Downing (University of Birmingham)

Stuart Elden (PAIS, Warwick)

Daniele Lorenzini (Philosophy, Warwick)

Federico Testa (Institute of Advanced Study, Warwick)

Supported by Centre Michel Foucault, Institute of Advanced Study, Warwick, and The University of Warwick.

Papers are circulated prior to the seminar. Please contact Tom Parr (T.Parr@warwick.ac.uk) for further information.

Guest Speakers:

Daniele Lorenzini  (Warwick)

Title: Genealogy, Possibilization, and (Post-)Critique

 David Owen (Southampton)

Title: Genealogy as Re-Problematization: Autonomy, Aspect-Change and Limits

Speaker: Tom Crowther

Title: Philosophy and Mental Health

Speakers: Tom Crowther (Warwick) and Guy Longworth (Warwick)

Titles: 'Knowledge, Abilities, and Wakeful Consciousness' (TC) and 'Learning from Theaetetus' (GL)

Papers are circulated prior to the seminar. Please contact Tom Parr (T.Parr@warwick.ac.uk) for further information.

Speaker: Josh Robinson (School of English, Communications, Philosophy, Cardiff)

Title: 'Crisis in Theory'

Josh Robinson teaches modern and contemporary critical theory in the School of English, Communication and Philosophy at the University of Cardiff. Most recently, he is author of Adorno’s Poetics of Form, which appeared last year in SUNY’s Contemporary Continental Philosophy series): https://www.sunypress.edu/p-6556-adornos-poetics-of-form.aspx

Crisis in Theory: Beyond the Representational Paradigm

This paper aspires to offer a critical account of a set of assumptions that are widespread in literary and critical theory, both in its historical emergence (as seen primarily through its institutional histories) and in several more recent developments (including the various ‘turns’ that arise from time to time. My focus is on what I term the representational paradigm: in its simplest and broadest formulation, the assumption, explicit or otherwise, within literary studies that works of literature matter insofar as they are representative; that what matters about literary works is their representative character.

This paradigm persists in multiple, not always interdependent (or even necessarily compatible) manifestations, which include: an analytical focus on events represented within works of literature (what might be called a focus on content at the expense of form); a set of analytical procedures that rely on an implicit theory of allegory whereby readings are produced that see elements of a work as representing elements outside it; attempts to reconfigure the canon and/or redesign our curricula such that the works and authors within it are more representative of global society. I outline a tentative taxonomy of these different versions of representationalism, and relate them to a set of shared democratic assumptions about political representation—assumptions which have a tendency to place themselves beyond scrutiny. I argue that while the democratic aspirations expressed at least in progressive versions of representationalism paradigm constitute a commendable alternative to the (not only cultural) conservatism of the tendencies against which they are in many respects a reaction, these underlying assumptions ultimately overlook or even limit the potential of literature’s ways of thinking to contribute to a transformation of our understanding of the political. I thus set out some of the ways in which criticism and theory might move beyond the representational paradigm.

The panel includes Fabienne Peter, Sameer Bajaj, Daniele Lorenzini and Michele Giavazzi who will be discussing the following: 

• Is state authority undermined by unjust political decisions?

• When is civil disobedience justified? Is uncivil disobedience ever justified?

• Does a thin democratic majority weaken a government’s mandate?

• What are the civic duties associated with democratic citizenship?

 Come along and join the discussion and put your questions to the panel! The event will include pizza and drinks.

In the first part of the seminar, Stephanie Redding (Centre for Student Careers and Skills) will give a presentation on 'Philosophy Postgrads: Exploring All Your Options', which will be about how to go about finding a job once you've completed your degree.

The second part of this seminar will be led by Tom Crowther, and will focus on 'How to Write an MA (or MPhil) Dissertation'. MA students are particularly encouraged to attend this workshop, since the issues are of particular relevance to them. But everyone is invited!

Session following on from 16 January:

Speakers: Tom Crowther (Warwick) and Guy Longworth (Warwick)

Titles: 'Knowledge, Abilities, and Wakeful Consciousness' (TC) and 'Learning from Theaetetus' (GL)

Speaker: Jörn Wiengarn

Title: 'I Trusted You! - On the Normativity of Interpersonal Trust'

Papers are circulated prior to the seminar. Please contact Tom Parr (T.Parr@warwick.ac.uk) for further information.

Speaker: Nina Power (Roehampton)

Title: 'Philosophies of the Wolf: Freud and Deleuze & Guattari

Speaker: Sophia Connell (Birkbeck)

Title: 'Aristotle on Animal Cognition: Contemporary Perspectives'

Wednesday 5 February 2020, 4.15pm-6pm, Room OC1.07, Oculus

Speaker: Daniele Lorenzini (Warwick)

Title: 'Understanding and Acknowledging: Some Remarks on the Illocutionary/Perlocutionary Distinction'