October 3-6, 2012; Denver, CO

Literary Studies and the New Phenomenology

Hermann Schmitz and the Neue Phänomenologie is growing in recognition among German literary scholars as well as theorists around the globe who are working on questions of space. However, his nuanced conceptions of feeling also offer insight into questions of affect and emotion that have been important in literary studies in recent years. How does Schmitz’s articulation of Gefühl as Atmosphäre resonate with current debates about the distinction between emotion and affect? How does Schmitz’s history of feeling fit with the history of emotions as reflected in literary texts? How does his politics of emotions come into conversation with the political and ideological meanings assigned to emotions in specific texts? Papers are invited that explore the implications of Schmitz’s philosophy for thinking about affect and emotion in literature. We are particularly interested in papers that:

– open perspectives on concrete literary texts from the early modern period to the contemporary as read against the backdrop of Schmitz’s phenomenology;

– use and expand Schmitz’s phenomenology in order to explore historic shifts in the understanding and distinction of emotion, affect, and atmosphere;

– point out the methodological and conceptual limits of Schmitz’s theory in the context of literary studies, genre studies, and poetics.

We seek 15- to 20-minute papers, in English or German. Please send an abstract (~250 words) and a brief CV that includes institutional affiliation by  FEBRUARY 10th, 2013, to both Jan Jost-Fritz (jostj@gmx.de) AND Anna Leeper (galeeper@wustl.edu).