Conference: Literature and Science in Europe, 1890-1950
10-11 February 2022 | Mgr. Sencie Institute, Arts Faculty, KU Leuven
As part of the Literary Knowledge, 1890-1950: Modernisms and the Sciences in Europe project within the University of Leuven’s MDRN research lab, this symposium seeks to address a simple question: what significant changes in the relation between science and literature in the modernist period (1890-1950) have either received too little attention, or have received a great deal of attention but require revision? The conference is to look at ‘literature’ and ‘science’ in a broad sense, charting practices and discourses in the sciences from the social sciences to the physical sciences, and approaching literature as writing aimed at a wide variety of audiences. It is also to pay special attention to whether (and if so, how) the rapid changes to the sciences in the modernist period led to corresponding alterations to the epistemic status of European literatures within the larger economy of knowledge production. Over two days of plenary sessions, invited speakers will present on a wide variety of European modernisms.
Invited speakers:
Ken Hirschkop (University of Waterloo)
Thomas Klinkert (University of Zurich)
Hugues Marchal (University of Basel)
Benedikt Hjartarson (University of Iceland)
Nicolas Pethes (University of Cologne)
Michael H. Whitworth (University of Oxford)
Stefan Willer (Humboldt University Berlin)
Tyrus Miller (University of California, Irvine)
A provisional programme and the abstracts can be found at http://mdrn.be/news/literature-and-science-europe-1890-1950-10-11-febr-2022.
To attend a live-stream of the conference, please contact adele.guyton@kuleuven.be.