Doctoral Workshop in Modern and Contemporary Literary Studies in English (11/12)

18 November 2026

Dr Patrick Jones, UNIGE

Prof. Simon Swift, UNIGE

Florence Schnebelen (Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France)

Patrick Jones (UNIGE) 

The Modern and Contemporary fortnightly workshop (Mod Con) is a well-attended workshop for PhD students and staff from all CUSO universities. The workshop is popular among doctoral students and early career scholars from the CUSO network. The workshop is a valuable space for the exchange of ideas between doctoral students working on modern and contemporary literatures of the English-speaking world. The 2026 programme will include talks, workshops and professionalisation seminars and it will remain an important space for work-in-progress papers from doctoral students.

18.11. The Question of Living.

In this session, Florence Schnebelen (Maîtresse de conférences en littérature comparée, Université Polytechnique Hauts-de-France) and Patrick Jones (UNIGE) will dialogue around the following questions: What can literature teach us about the activity of leading a life? How does literature shape our conceptions of a good or authentically lived life? They will discuss the existential themes of their recent monographs (Le Réel et l’Absolu and Henry James and the Question of Living) and will also speak about the comparative methods they use to put literature and philosophy in meaningful dialogue with one another.

UNIGE

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