(To download a more detailed version of the CfP as a PDF, please go to: https://www.academia.edu/34180859/CfP_Poetics_of_Exscription._J.-L._Nancy_and_Literature_ACLA_Seminar_2018_Edited_Volume_ )
ACLA Seminar, UCLA (Los Angeles), March 29th –April 1st, 2018
Poetics of Exscription
J.-L. Nancy and Literature
“To write, and to read, is to be exposed, to expose oneself […] to ‘exscription’.”
– The Birth to Presence
At the limit of discursive meaning, poetic language continually delineates an edge: where writing, no longer merely ‘representing’ or conveying ‘meaning’, touches upon the corporeality of words. In this situation of intimate contact with “language as body”, exscription – literally – takes place.
From Sophocles to Joyce, Homer to Rimbaud, literature and literary theory are without doubt essential to Jean-Luc Nancy’s oeuvre. In fields like art history and performance studies, his philosophy is widely received; literary studies, however, have yet to fully unlock its critical potential. While there are studies dedicated to specific aspects of Nancy’s literary thought, an overarching account remains a (surprising) research gap. The goal of our seminar is to exchange current work on the topic and to, for the first time, flesh out a genuinely Nancean poetics. An edited volume on the results of he seminar is planned.
The ACLA’s 2018 meeting will take place at UCLA (CA). Interested scholars are encouraged to contact the convenors: Philippe P. Haensler (philippe.haensler@uzh.ch) and Stefanie Heine (stefanie.heine@utoronto.ca) before September 21st. Abstracts have to be submitted via the ACLA website (https://www.acla.org/annual-meeting) between August 31st and September 21st.