Workshops, seminars
The World, the Text, and the Critic in the Posthuman Era
Beginning
12.05.2017
End
13.05.2017
How do we conceptualise ‘the human’ in a posthuman era? What is the research object of the ‘humanities’ if the contours of the human can no longer be neatly delineated? How can we rework ‘humanist’ approaches to (world) literature at a time when humans have become a disruptive geological force, and “What Is a World” (Cheah 2016), anyway?
This workshop responds to the imperative to reposition, relocate, and possibly reinvent the humanities in the face of the so-called posthuman turn. Critiques of humanism in the tradition of intellectuals such as Edward Said and Michel Foucault all too often tend to rely on an anthropocentric paradigm. This need not be the case, as Rosi Braidotti’s optimistic outlook on the “productivity of a posthuman future for the humanities” (2016, 9) suggests. How can the ongoing relevance of critical positions on humanism be reconciled – and, ideally, reassessed – with a view to the current dislocations of the human, as well as sweeping environmental, economic, social, and technological changes?
The workshop aims at formulating tentative responses to the questions raised by the debate on posthumanism. What is at stake in the discussion is no less than the (institutional) future of our disciplines. Thus, the posthuman turn will serve as an incentive not only to problematise the methods, topics, structures, and aims of our work in the humanities but also to continue mapping new and innovative approaches in our fields of research, especially in literary and cultural studies.
Professor Pheng Cheah (University of California, Berkeley) will be the invited reseacher for this year’s workshop. He has extensively published on cosmopolitanism, postcolonial literature, and political theory. His most recent book is What Is a World?: On Postcolonial Literature as World Literature (2016).
The workshop will start with the public keynote lecture “Worldling Literature. Living-With Tiger Spirits” by Prof. Dr. Pheng Cheah on Friday, May 12, 2017, 17:00 at the Claudiana.
Detailed information on our website http://bit.ly/forumphilkult
PROGRAM
Friday, May 12, 2017
17:00 Welcome Address
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Birgit Mertz-Baumgartner
Head of the Research Focus “Cultures in Contact” (“Kulturen in Kontakt”)
17:15 Keynote Lecture
“Worlding Literature. Living-With Tiger Spirits”
Prof. Dr. Pheng Cheah, UC Berkeley
18:30 Discussion
19:00 Reception, Türingsaal
Saturday, May 13, 2017
9:30 – 18:30 Workshop
“The World, the Text, and the Critic in the Posthuman Era”
This workshop responds to the imperative to reposition, relocate, and possibly reinvent the humanities in the face of the so-called posthuman turn. Critiques of humanism in the tradition of intellectuals such as Edward Said and Michel Foucault all too often tend to rely on an anthropocentric paradigm. This need not be the case, as Rosi Braidotti’s optimistic outlook on the “productivity of a posthuman future for the humanities” (2016, 9) suggests. How can the ongoing relevance of critical positions on humanism be reconciled – and, ideally, reassessed – with a view to the current dislocations of the human, as well as sweeping environmental, economic, social, and technological changes?
The workshop aims at formulating tentative responses to the questions raised by the debate on posthumanism. What is at stake in the discussion is no less than the (institutional) future of our disciplines. Thus, the posthuman turn will serve as an incentive not only to problematise the methods, topics, structures, and aims of our work in the humanities but also to continue mapping new and innovative approaches in our fields of research, especially in literary and cultural studies.
Professor Pheng Cheah (University of California, Berkeley) will be the invited reseacher for this year’s workshop. He has extensively published on cosmopolitanism, postcolonial literature, and political theory. His most recent book is What Is a World?: On Postcolonial Literature as World Literature (2016).
The workshop will start with the public keynote lecture “Worldling Literature. Living-With Tiger Spirits” by Prof. Dr. Pheng Cheah on Friday, May 12, 2017, 17:00 at the Claudiana.
Detailed information on our website http://bit.ly/forumphilkult
PROGRAM
Friday, May 12, 2017
17:00 Welcome Address
Univ.-Prof. Dr. Birgit Mertz-Baumgartner
Head of the Research Focus “Cultures in Contact” (“Kulturen in Kontakt”)
17:15 Keynote Lecture
“Worlding Literature. Living-With Tiger Spirits”
Prof. Dr. Pheng Cheah, UC Berkeley
18:30 Discussion
19:00 Reception, Türingsaal
Saturday, May 13, 2017
9:30 – 18:30 Workshop
“The World, the Text, and the Critic in the Posthuman Era”
Source of description: Information from the provider
Fields of research
Postcolonial studies, World LiteraturePosthumanismus
Links
Institutions
Universität Innsbruck