Global Modernism and the Global Philosophy of Mind

This seminar convenes scholars working in philosophy and literature, broadly construed. It harnesses the frisson between global modernist literature and global philosophies of mind. Seemingly remote from reality, how might the philosophy of mind illuminate the modern global metropolis? Do idealist theories of reality—German, French, or Indian—have a place in accounts of modernity that are so often dominated by Marxian materialism? How might philosophy reconcile, or extricate us from, the impasse between singular and multiple theories of modernity? How does non-European philosophy complicate our extant understanding of this concept?

Papers may consult any number of theorists of modernism and modernity, from Susan Stanford Friedman to Rita Felski, Marshall Berman to Harry Harootunian, and Fredric Jameson to Dipesh Chakrabarty. Participants are also encouraged to engage with the work of global philosophers, including Jonardon Ganeri, Evan Thompson, Jay Garfield, Martha Nussbaum, Alia al-Saji, and Kojin Karatani. Papers should bring a theoretical or philosophical approach to literature from the ever-widening canon of global modernism, potentially drawing on authors such as Rabindranath Tagore, Andrei Bely, Forough Farrokhzad, Sadeq Hedayat, Clarice Lispector, Charles Baudelaire, Virginia Woolf, T. S. Eliot, Tayeb Salih, Adunis, Ahmet Hamdi Tanpınar, Rubén Darío, Octavio Paz, or other less-studied modernist figures.

Papers on non-European modernism and philosophy are especially welcome, in addition to those that expressly theorize the encounter between Europe and the Global South. In this way, the seminar addresses the question of cross-cultural comparison. How can we account for European interest in the non-European world, beyond the framework of orientalism? How can we go beyond paradigms of centers and peripheries, originals and copies, in a way that does not merely restate postcolonial theories of hybridity and creolization? How can we rethink non-European appropriations of European culture without lapsing into frameworks of belatedness and imitation—or do materialist accounts of modernity require that we accept the reality of uneven development?

Contact the organizer with any questions at [email protected]