Philosophy of Poetry
A conference at the University of Genova, 27-28 January 2025
Although many classic treatments of literature throughout the history of philosophy view poems as the paradigmatic literary works, poetry seems to be quite neglected in contemporary philosophy of literature, especially if compared to fiction and narrative. This conference is intended as a contribution towards poetry’s philosophical resurgence. We welcome submissions from philosophers, literary scholars and poets on theoretical and aesthetic topics concerning poems.
Research questions for papers may include but are not limited to:
- What defines poetry as an art form? How can it be differentiated from other literary forms? Is poetry really an art form or is it better categorized as a genre?
- What kind of objects are poems? Should they be identified as abstract objects, or rather as concrete tokens such as inscriptions or performances?
- What is the role of sound in poetry? What is the relationship between poetry and music?
- What is the importance of performance in poetry? Can poetry be properly appreciated by reading it silently?
- What is the role of graphic form in poetry? What is the relationship between poetry and drawing?
- What is the status of experiments like concrete poetry and visual poetry?
- How can the experience that poems are meant to generate be characterized? Is there an experiential profile that all poems mandate?
- What is the role of mental imagery in the experience and interpretation of poetry?
- Do perceptual and cognitive phenomenology interact in the experience of poetry? If they do, how can we characterize their interaction?
- Poetry comes in different forms: if poetry is the genus, what are its different species? What could a taxonomy of poetry look like?
- Lyric poetry is often written in the first person: how does this peculiar perspective affect one’s engagement with poems?
- Does poetry have epistemic import? Is there a specific type of knowledge that poetry conveys? Does poetry elicit particular cognitive processes? Is poetry a suitable linguistic form for philosophy?
- Can the meaning of poems be paraphrased? If not, is the meaning of poems ineffable?
- Can poetry be translated without loss of content? Can poetry be properly assessed in translation?
- What is the relationship between meaning and form in poetry? Are meaning and form inseparable? Do we find the same relationship anywhere else in ordinary language?
- Can philosophy of language account for poetic meaning? What is the semantics of poetry? What is the pragmatics of poetry? Does poetry exhibit sui generis semantic or pragmatic mechanisms?
- Can an AI program write a poem? What is the role of large language models in poetry?
Invited Speakers:
Marcello Frixione (University of Genoa)
Eileen John (University of Warwick)
Hannah H. Kim (University of Arizona)
Anna Christina Soy Ribeiro (Texas Tech University)
Call for Abstracts:
Please submit proposals by writing to: pea@unige.it Submissions should be done as PDF files prepared for blind review. Please submit abstracts between 500 and 1000 words (references excluded) together with a title and 3 keywords.
The deadline for receipt is November 20, 2024. Speakers will be notified of decisions by December 3, 2024.
There will be no conference fees. It will be possible to apply for bursaries.