Time, Space, and the Inexpressible / Le temps, l’espace, l’indicible

Is time a state of being? Or a condition of human subjectivity? Can being – if it lies outside the realm of human subjectivity – be humanly conceived? Or expressed? How do philosophy and literature meet the challenge of the inexpressible?

This interdisciplinary round table brings together a French philosopher and a literary critic with a shared interest in questions of space, time, and inexpressibility. The philosopher Guillaume Pigeard de Gurbert will be talking about his new book, La Fable du temps (2024), a study that draws widely on pre-modern philosophical sources to challenge contemporary philosophy in its standard account of the relations between time and space. Orane Onyekpe-Touzet (MLAC) will be speaking about her new work on the notion of the inexpressible (l’indicible) in the postcolonial Francophone Caribbean literary and philosophical tradition that she and Guillaume Pigeard de Gurbert have in common. Chaired by Richard Scholar (IMEMS/MLAC), who co-directs the IMEMS research strand Early Modern Keywords, this session will explore fundamental issues in philosophy, the questions these raise for literature, and some of the most expressive words that philosophy and literature share. 

Discussions will be in English and French. 

All welcome.