“Logic and Modern Literature”

Keynote Speakers: Andrea K. Henderson (UC Irvine), N. Kathleen Hayles (UCLA), Robert B. Pippin (University of Chicago), Internef 275, UNIL
https://www.logicandmodernliterature.net

Building on a wealth of recent scholarship, this conference will address a range of historical, epistemological and interdisciplinary questions about literature and logic since circa 1800, considering both broad filiations between them and specific points of intersection.

“Literary Logic”

Helen Thaventhiran (University of Cambridge), Andrea K. Henderson, (UC Irvine), UNIL
https://english.cuso.ch/?id=897&tx_displaycontroller[showUid]=6549.

Drawing on the expertise of our visiting speakers, this doctoral workshop will address a range of historical, epistemological and interdisciplinary questions about literature and logic, considering the kind(s) of logic at work in literary texts and the aesthetics of argument, particularly in literary criticism. There will be opportunities for doctoral students to present their work in progress and all participants will be invited to reflect upon the argumentative logic(s) they deploy in their own critical writing.

“Shakespeare and Messianic Time: The Opening Scene of Hamlet”

Margaret Tudeau-Clayton (Emerita, UNINE)

I will first present an analysis of the opening scene of Hamlet within the framework of my current research on Shakespeare and messianic time. My focus is the lyrical evocation by the sentinel Marcellus of the received popular belief that the cock sings all night in the ‘season’ of celebration of ‘our Saviour’s birth’ which, I argue, is above all significant for its representation of the temporal economy of the messianic event. In a second ‘hands on’ part I want us to test one of the more interesting hypotheses about this passage, namely that it summons as an antithetical intertext the scene of the shepherds in one of the mystery cycles Shakespeare may have seen as a child. After reading the two scenes we will discuss not only this (possible) intertextual relation but also how it complicates the question of temporalities.

“The End of Burnout”

Jonathan Malesic, Salle Denis de Rougemont, Espace Colladon

Burnout is a growing concern for academics as much as for those within other vocations, and sadly PhD students are not immune to its risks. This one-day event will welcome Jonathan Malesic, author of The End of Bunout: Why Work Drains Us and How to Build Better Lives (University of California Press, 2022) to discuss the science, culture, and philosophy of burnout, and how to cultivate a relationship to (academic) work that might help to avoid it. Malesic was himself an academic specializing in the theology of work, before suffering his own burnout. He now leads a more multifaceted life, working as a sushi chef as well as adjunct professor in Dallas, Texas, and, as his recent publication goes to show, is a thriving academic outside of the teaching machine. Given that the topic of this workshop – both as an experience of the academic vocation and a subject of scholarly research – touches all areas of our discipline, our hope is that it will bring together doctoral students in English studies from across the historical spectrum and the literature/linguistics divide. The risk of burnout, and an urgent need to reflect on the changing culture of academic work in the digital age, unite us.

Works in Progress

Aïcha Bouchelaghem (UNIGE), “Abolition beyond the Human-Animal Binary in African American Literature”

Launcelot Stuecklin (UNIGE), "The bœuf en daube : an English Recipe for a French Tradition (Proust and Woolf)"

Publishing While Writing the PhD

In this session, we will discuss the possibilities of publication while writing your PhD, and think about opportunities to publish that might be available to PhD students.

Guided Reading: excerpts from Immanuel Kant, Critique of Judgement

(led by Simon Swift, UNIGE)

Finishing the PhD and Converting it into a Book

Patrick Jones (UNIGE) and Aurélie Zurbruegg (UNIGE/UNIFR)

The session leaders will reflect on their (recent) experiencing of finishing the PhD, and (current) experience of converting it into a monograph.