Medieval and Early Modern Studies Traveling Seminar: Literature and Knowledge in Early Modern England

November 18

Kevin Curran

Prof. Kevin Curran, Unil

Dr Subha Mukherji, University of Cambridge

Dr. Subha Mukherji is the author of three books dealing with the relationship between literary form and the history of ideas. She is an international authority on early modern literature and law and the leader of a five-year ERC-funded project called "Crossroads of Knowledge in Early Modern England: The Place of Literature" based at the University of Cambridge. The project explores how literature, law, natural philosophy, economics, and theology generated a shared body of epistemological, linguistic, and formal tools. Dr. Mukherji's visit to the University of Lausanne will offer an opportunity for doctoral students (and faculty) at CUSO institutions to learn more about the role of early modern literature in knowledge-making and to find ways to connect their own work to the activities of the "Crossroads" project. Specifically, Dr. Mukherji's visit will comprise three events: a seminar for doctoral students and post-docs on the topic of early English literature and law; a series of four to five short roundtable presentations by CUSO doctoral and postdoctoral students, each dealing with a "keyword" in medieval and Renaissance knowledge-making (i.e. "judgment," "self," "nature," "doubt," "method") to which Dr. Mukherji will respond; and a lecture titled "Poetics of Disproportion, Economies of Excess," which will address literature, theology, and economics in the early modern period. The schedule will run roughly as follows: 10:00-10:30: Welcome and Coffee 10:30-12:30: Seminar on Literature and Law in Medieval and Renaissance England 12:30-14:00: Lunch 14:00-15:30: Student Roundtable Session: Keywords in Medieval and Renaissance Knowledge-Making 15:45-17:15: Lecture: "Poetics of Disproportion, Economies of Excess?

Lausanne

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