Das Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften: Veranstaltungen

Donnerstag, 05.12.2024, 11:00 Uhr
Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften, Am Wingertsberg 4, 61348 Bad Homburg

Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften der Goethe-Universität
FKH Kolloquium

Philip Mills
»Towards a Transformative Philosophy of Poetry«

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.

Redner
Philip Mills hat 2019 im Fach Philosophie am Royal Holloway College der University of London promoviert. Forschungsaufenthalte führten ihn anschließend an die Universität Lausanne und die Duke University in Durham. Von September 2024 bis August 2025 ist er auf Einladung des Forschungsschwerpunktes »Democratic Vistas: Reflections on the Atlantic World« Fellow am Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften.

Teilnahme
Geschlossene Veranstaltung. Kontakt: Beate Sutterlüty; E-Mail: b.sutterluety@forschungskolleg-humanwissenschaften.de.