GSA Seminar: “Phenomenology to the Letter: Husserl and Literature”

German Studies Association (https://www.thegsa.org); Forty-First Annual Conference, Atlanta (GA) October 5th – 8th, 2017.

Call for Applications [Seminar] “Phenomenology to the Letter: Husserl and Literature”

Conveners: Kristina Mendicino (Brown University), Rochelle Tobias (Johns Hopkins University), Philippe P. Haensler (University of Zurich)

Regarding philosophical importance, Edmund Husserl is arguably the German ‘export’ of the early 20th century. In wake of the linguistic turn(s) of the humanities, however, his claim to “go back to the ‘things themselves’” instead of concerning himself with what he calls “mere words” became metonymic for the “profound negligence towards language” (Gadamer) in Western philosophy. This view has been particularly influential in (post-)structural literary theory, which has never ceased to attack phenomenology’s supposed “logophobia” (Foucault).
On the basis of focused readings totaling roughly 70 pages (excerpts from (a) the Logische Untersuchungen, (b) Zur Phänomenologie des inneren Zeitbewusstseins and (c) the unpublished manuscripts), whose final selection will be decided in correspondence with the seminar participants and circulated three months prior to the event, the seminar sets out to challenge this verdict and its methodological consequences and to critically (re-)evaluate the poetological implications of Husserl’s oeuvre.

The application period will start on January 5 and will close on January 26, 2017 (applications via the GSA website); only current GSA members who have paid their dues will be able to apply.
For information concerning the specific content / form of the seminar “Phenomenology to the Letter: Husserl and Literature” please contact the conveners (kristina_mendicino@brown.edu, rtobias@jhu.edu, philippe.haensler@uzh.ch).

For the extended version of the CfA please visit: https://www.academia.edu/30732779/CfA_GSA_Seminar_Phenomenology_to_the_Letter_Husserl_and_Literature_ .