Time for an #introduction – I've been occupied setting up https://zirk.us for #arts and #humanities people last week!
I'm a PhD student in #literature and #philosophy at the FU Berlin, writing on the status of "ethical" literary criticism after poststructuralism. I argue that Stanley #Cavell and New #Wittgenstein philosophers offer a better alternative than "neo-humanist" and "deconstructive" approaches.
When I'm done I hope to dedicate more time to creative #writing activities.
@lexipenia 1. Sounds like good work. Diamond's The Realistic Spirit was important to me when I was deep into the "Chicago–Pittsburgh" Wittgenstein (McDowell, Cavell, Conant, Pippin, Brandom, et al.).
2. Is it possible for we denizens of the zirk.us to follow accounts on other servers/instances? For example, I tried following someone on mstdn.social and was directed to sign in on that server (can't) or copy/paste the account's link in my web browser while signed in here, to no avail.
Thanks!
@megaherb Thanks!
1) I'm also pretty deep into that stuff. Diamond is the other key figure next to Cavell. I think she helps bring out some of the aspects implicit in his work re. the "therapeutic" function of literary forms. Cavell tends to offer "philosophical" readings, Diamond more "therapeutic" ones. But they also overlap.
2) You can follow anyone! The issue is not to open them in a new tab (which will redirect). Search their handle or click their profile within the Zirkus web UI.
@lexipenia 2. I searched from within our UI as you said and it worked, danke schön!
1. It appears that it's on hold—I assume due to continuing Covid-related caution—but the University of Chicago used to host a weekly Wittgenstein workshop, which was a small gathering of profs & mostly grad students with an interest in LW who were looking for an intimate, informal venue for sharing their work-in-progress. When it begins again and if you ever visit the Windy City, you may want to check it out.
@megaherb I was there for a few months in 2013 (so long ago!), right at the start of my dissertation. I recall the great lit/phil workshop, but not a Wittgenstein one? Maybe I missed it, or maybe it's more recent?
@lexipenia Ah, I was there as an undergrad from 2005-09, so maybe it had a few years of hiatus after I left. In fact, James Conant was the workshop's faculty coordinator and, looking over his bio, he had a fellowship at Goettingen in 2012-2013 and was also busy in Leipzig around the same time. So, perhaps you just missed it. Uff da ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
@megaherb @lexipenia When I started grad school at Berkeley I met a couple former UChicago people who ran an informal version of that workshop in a cafe, and it did more for me intellectually than any official seminar I ever took, bar one. The Realistic Spirit was an important book for me in those years too.
@pauline @lexipenia the life of the mind 'til death do y'all part, how romantic :)
@megaherb @lexipenia Lots of Romantic irony in our house
@megaherb @lexipenia (full disclosure; one of those former UChicago people I'm now married to)