Of Interest

Poetics Versus Philosophy: Life, Artifact, and Theory

Poetics Versus Philosophy: Life, Artifact, and Theory
Texas A & M University
April 11‐13, 2013

Since Plato, the controversy between poetry and the philosophical project has been legendary, repeated in multiple variations throughout history until the present day. This initial antagonistic gesture by the ancient philosopher against poets can perhaps lead us to expand our range of reflection about crucial topics today, such as the semantic and syntactic mysteries of artistic and scientific artifacts, or the imaginary value that dwells within theoretical speculation. Creating an interdisciplinary dialogue between fields such as art and architecture, philosophy, political and natural sciences, poetical and literary studies is unavoidable. The unresolved ancestral conflict between poetry and rational knowledge must be restated for the 21st Century; this conflict serves as a metaphor around which this symposium is conceived.

Keynote speaker:

Marjorie Perloff
Emeriti Distinguished Professor at Stanford University
Former President of the Modern Language Association of America

Invited Speakers:

Charles Bernstein
Donald T. Regan Professor of English and Comparative
Literature, University of Pennsylvania

Ida Vitale
Author, Poet, and Translator

Jennifer Ann Bates
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Duquesne University

Possible topics for discussion include but are not limited to:

  • Reception of American poetics in Spanish writing
  • Reception of Hispanic poetics in American writing
  • Aesthetic theory and philosophy of art in the Spanish language
  • The hidden political character of poetic and artistic invention
  • New horizons in aesthetics
  • Scientific and artistic artifacts helping us to understand the complexity of life
  • The nature of the artist´s meditation
  • Utopia and possibility of unification of human knowledge
  • New sources of architectural thinking
  • Poetical a priorities in theoretical models
  • Authors on authors
  • Translation and Trans‐creation
  • Memory and Mourning
  • Exile and artistic thinking on displacement
  • The teaching of creative thinking and writing
  • Visual thinking

To submit a proposal for consideration, please send an abstract of 300 words to Professor Theodore George, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Texas A&M University, at t‐george@philosophy.tamu.edu.

The deadline for submission to the symposium is February 14th, 2013.