Organised by Zaal Andronikashvili (Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research) and Susanne Strätling (Freie Universität Berlin/EXC 2020), project Circulations of Theory: Topics, Processes, and Histories of a Globalised Form of Writing, Research Area 4: "Literary Currencies".
Annual workshop of the Research Committee on Literary Theory of the International Comparative Literature Association.
Literary theories maintain a rather ambiguous relationship to literature, meandering between participation and alienation. On the one hand, they attempt to assume a neutral, abstract meta-position, for which the dogma of disinterestedness has been decisive since Kant. On the other hand, literature and literary theory are so intimately entwined that they can hardly be neatly separated. This literariness of theory extends to all theoretical reasoning, even in its sincerest attempts at avoiding any figurativity. The workshop explores the largely uncharted field of tropes in literary theory both historically and systematically.
Programme (download)
Friday, 20 October
10:00 | Welcome
10:15-12:15 | Panel I: Figuring Theory
Chair: Susanne Strätling (Freie Universität Berlin)
Robert Young (New York University): Theory as Trope
Divya Dwivedi (Indian Institute of Technology): Theory and the Trope of Reading
Rok Benčin (Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts, ZRC SAZU): The Miracle of Analogy and the Displacement of Concepts
Robert Stockhammer (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität München): Synecdoche and Representative Anecdote (Kenneth Burke) in Theory
12:15 | Lunch
13:30-15:30 | Panel II: Mining the History of Tropology
Chair: Natalya Bekhta (Tampere University)
Amy Li Xiaofan (University College London): Illumination: The Solar Trope in Literary Theory from a Comparative Perspective
Susanne Strätling (Freie Universität Berlin): Poetics as Energetics? Trajectories of Modern Literary Theory
Anne Duprat (Université de Picardie-Jules Verne): Elegance, or: How Stylish Can Literary Theory Be?
Maya Kesrouany (New York University Abu Dhabi): Figural Hauntings in Contemporary Arabic Literary Theory
15:30 | Coffee Break
16:00-17:30 | Panel III: Reading Tropes
Chair: Maya Kesrouany (New York University Abu Dhabi)
Stefan Willer (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin): Ties: Metaphors of Postcritique
Woosung Kang (Seoul National University): Reading Freud Reading: How Blindness Drives Theories
Marco Caracciolo (Ghent University): Tropes for Complexity in Literary Theory
Saturday, 21 October
10:00-11:30 | Panel IV: Politics of Tropes
Chair: Anne Duprat (Université de Picardie-Jules Verne)
Ivana Perica (Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research): Polysemy of 'the Political'
Davide Giuriato (Universität Zürich): Drastic: Breakdown of Tropes? (Jankelevitch, Abbate, Dath)
Zaal Andronikashvili (Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research): Small and Minor: Figures of Minority in the System of World Literature
11:30 | Closing remarks
Time & Location
Oct 20, 2023 - Oct 21, 2023
Leibniz Center for Literary and Cultural Research (ZfL)
Conference Room, 2nd Floor
Pariser Str. 1
10719 Berlin