KEYNOTE SPEAKERS

Shira Wolosky (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem)
Kevin Hart (University of Virginia)

The conference presents literary, philosophical and theological contributions on the contemporary notions and significance of transcendence. In the wake of the 'immanent turns' in philosophy and cultural studies in the 1970s and 1980s transcendence was deemed a relic that established false authority and even spiritual tyranny. In recent years diverse fields have turned to 'transcendence' again, not in order to rehabilitate but to rearticulate it as a concept of epistemological, literary and aesthetic criticism. It seems that philosophies of all-inclusive immanence repeat the same hegemonic mistakes for which thinkers of transcendence were previously criticised. Hence immanence needs to be radically revised - not in order to establish any deeper realities with their paramount Others, but so as to reveal ontological and epistemological blind spots unattainable by means of ordinary language and thought.

Despite the common conception of transcendence as a plane beyond language, language is a fundamental locus at which the divide between the immanent and the transcendent is determined. How, then, is transcendence written today and what is at stake?

STUDENTS N.B: in case you are interested in joining the event as a part of you intermediate or advanced studies, see http://www.uta.fi/laitokset/taide/
For further information, students of Comparative Philosophy are asked to contact paivi.mehtonen ät uta.fi and students of Theoretical Philosophy tommi.vehkavaara ät uta.fi

ORGANISERS
The Project Literature, Transcendence and Avant-garde
Department of Literature and the Arts (University of Tampere, Finland)
Further information: transcendences(at)uta.fi