Literary Scholarship and Social Sciences: Opportunities for Dialogue
International conference organized jointly by
Moscow Lomonosov University and Research University-Higher School of Economics
Moscow, March 15-17, 2012
The practice of literature as well as the study and teaching of literature today have undergone and continue to undergo changes so dramatic that one is challenged, almost, to try to reinvent these institutions from ground up. It seems a fitting moment, too, to reconsider the mutual usability and imbrications of literary scholarship and the social sciences insofar as both, in recent decades, have developed a vaguely anthropological thrust and now address the task of exploring human subjectivity, intersubjectivity, agency.
Literary scholarship, inflected by semiotics and cultural (discourse, media, performative and other) studies, has moved towards examining the relationships between the aesthetic and social aspects of texts and meaning (ideology). The social sciences have taken a “cultural turn”, also inflected by semiotics and contemporary philosophy - they have moved toward examining the social circulation and structures of meaning (ideology), social and power relationships growing out of such meanings.
What possibilities of dialogue and opportunities of exchange have arisen as a result between literary scholarship and social sciences? How did (and do) these developments affect knowledge production in contemporary universities? What new formats or uses for literary studies are – or may be – designed in the future structures of university education? What can the social sciences learn from the self-conscious engagement with the systematic study of literature? What can literary studies learn from engagement with the study of social formations and power relationships in the social sciences?
In this conference, we hope to approach these questions through dialogue and interchange between literary scholars and the social scientists.
The four focal categories that we invite to put up for problematization and discussion are experience, imagination, action, and narrative. Their literary (textual, aesthetic) as well as sociocultural dimensions have been well recognized and invite collaboration.
Social action/event can be read as text, whereas text can be studied as a chain of verbal/imaginative acts; in both cases, texts and social events inhabit the curious realm of “experience.” Social/cultural experience can be explored for the irreducible aesthetic component, while aesthetic experience can be probed for undeniable social and cultural underpinnings.
Proposals (max. 200 words) for papers should be submitted as e-mail attachments to the Conference Secretary, Maria Soukhotina (discours@philol.msu.ru), before November 20th, 2011.
Tatiana Venediktova (vened@philol.msu.ru)
Moscow University, School of Philology
Chair, Department of Discourse and Communication Studies
Elena Penskaya
Research University-Higher School of Economics
Dean, Department of Philology