LITERARY TRANSCENDENCES
7-8 October 2010, University of Tampere, Finland
Abstract submission dead line: 2 April 2010
Keynote speakers of the conference include: *KevinHart* (Edwin B. Kyle Professor of Christian Studies, University of Virginia) and *ShiraWolosky* (Professor of American Studies and English Literature, The HebrewUniversity of Jerusalem)
CALL FOR PAPERS
The conference Literary Transcendences welcomes contributions on the contemporary notionsand significance of transcendence, be they reinterpretations of literary,philosophical or theological texts and traditions, or novel theoreticalopenings.
In the wake of the “immanent turns” inphilosophy and cultural studies in the 1970s and 1980s transcendence was deemeda relic and a hierarchical concept that established false authority and evenspiritual tyranny. In recent years thinkers in diverse fields have turned to transcendenceagain: not in order to rehabilitate but to rearticulate ‘transcendence' as aconcept for epistemological, literary and aesthetic criticism. It seems that philosophiesof all-inclusive immanence repeat the same hegemonic mistakes for whichthinkers of transcendence were previously criticised. Hence immanence needs tobe radically revised and cracked open—not in order to establish other worlds orany deeper realities with their paramount Others, but so as to reveal ontologicaland epistemological blind spots unattainable by means of ordinary language andthought.
Despite the common conception of transcendence as a plane beyond language,language is a fundamental locus at which the divide between the immanent andthe transcendent is determined. Language is also where the divide itself isalways already suspended. Conversely, the very suspension applies to plainimmanence too: when the place of transcendence is disputed, the ontology ofimmanence becomes a matter of negotiation. How, then, is transcendence writtentoday and what is at stake?
The organizers welcome proposals for contributions(max. 400 words, for a 20 minute paper + 10 minute discussion time). Theabstract and a short bio-bibliography should be e-mailed to
transcendences(at)uta.fi *by 2 April 2010*.
Speakers will be notified by the end of April. Fullconference info will be available by the end of May.
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ORGANISERS:
The Project *Literature,Transcendence and Avant-garde* http://www.littravant.eu/
Department of Literature andthe Arts (University of Tampere, Finland)
Further information:paivi.mehtonen(at)uta.fi