The Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften: Events

Abstract
In this paper, I present a transformative philosophy of poetry that brings into relation the philosophy of language and contemporary poetics. What is a transformative philosophy of poetry? What are its relations to the philosophy of language? Most attempts at defining poetry have been confronted with a seemingly unsurmountable problem, namely the historicity of poetry and its variety across traditions. Poetry is not a fixed and rigid category but evolves through time, and many poetic practices precisely go against established definitions of what poetry is. In consequence, most contemporary poetics have stopped searching for essential properties to define poetry and adopt a pragmatic and performative definition of poetry. One can find such a definition in Henri Meschonnic’s idea that there is a double transformation at play in poetic practices: forms of language transform forms of life and forms of life transform forms of language. Literary theorists increasingly attempt to characterise poetry in terms of its effects, be it by defining it as a dispositif that acts in the world (Christophe Hanna), as an energetics highlighting a certain effort (Pierre Vinclair), or as a performative utterance (Johnathan Culler). These various attempts all highlight Meschonnic’s idea that the poem does something: to the reader, to the poet, to language, and to poetry itself. Building on these theories, I argue that we can understand the philosophy of poetry as a performative and transformative philosophy of language.

The speaker
Philip Mills completed his doctorate in philosophy at Royal Holloway College, University of London, in 2019. Research visits later led him to the University of Lausanne and Duke University in Durham. From September 2024 to August 2025, he is a fellow at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften at the invitation of the research focus »Democratic Vistas: Reflections on the Atlantic World«.

Participation
Closed event. Contact: Beate Sutterlüty; email: b.sutterluety@forschungskolleg-humanwissenschaften.de.