THE FIGURES OF LANGUAGE, THE LANGUAGE OF FIGURES
– Research Workshop –
On Monday, May 8, 2016, 17.00-19.00, the Center of Excellence in Image Studies (CESI), University of Bucharest, will be hosting the research workshop “The Figures of Language, the Language of Figures”. The event will take place in the Conference Room of CESI, 5 Mihail Moxa Street, as part of the research project “Figura – Body, Art, Space, Language” funded by UEFISCDI through the “Young Research Teams” program (PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-0787), currently underway at CESI.
The figure in language is the last of the four directions opened for exploration by the team members and their guests in the project’s series of research workshops. During this last workshop dealing with the status and functioning of the figure within language but also with the various theoretical discourses at work in approaching this subject, Adrian Tudurachi will follow several attempts at articulating contemporary redefinitions of the figure that go beyond the traditional rhetorical perspective. This undertaking examines the influence exerted by artistic practices (photography, montage) and philosophical reflection (Lyotard’s, Deleuze’s, and Didi-Huberman’s work on figurability and the figural, the notion of apparatus as developed by Foucault and Agamben) upon the process of rethinking the figure within language not in textual terms, as it has been the case in traditional approaches, but in visual terms instead. This insight into the visual culture’s impact on the reconsideration of the figure within language will gain more depth through the intervention of Chris Tănăsescu, founding member of the multi(-digital-)media poetry, painting/video, and music band MARGENTO. He is also an interdisciplinary researcher of literature, currently in charge with the new Digital Humanities program at the University of Ottawa.
Adrian Tudurachi is a literary critic and historian, currently Deputy Director of the “Sextil Puşcariu” Institute of Linguistics and Literary History (Cluj-Napoca). In 2005 he obtained his PhD in Literary Studies with a thesis on Mihail Dragomirescu’s poetics, later published as Destinul precar al ideilor literare (2006). His research interests include modern literary ideologies and the relation between the experience of literary forms and the social representations of literature. He has edited collective volumes (Dus-întors. Rute ale teoriei literare în postmodernitate, together with Oana Fotache and Magda Răduţă, 2016), as well as special issues of academic journals. He is the editor-in-chief of the academic journal Dacoromania litteraria edited by the Cluj-Napoca branch of the Romanian Academy, while also being a member of the editorial boards of other publications, such as RiCognizioni. Rivista di Lingue e Letterature Straniere e Culture Moderne and Transylvanian Review. He is the author of several important scientific studies. His most recent book is Fabrica de geniu. Naşterea unei mitologii a productivităţii literare în cultura română, 1825-1875 (2016).
Chris Tănăsescu (alias MARGENTO) is a poet, performer, critic, and translator. He holds a PhD in Literary Studies, as well as a BA in informatics. A professor of contemporary American poetry, digital humanities, creative writing, and natural language processing, he taught at the University of Bucharest, San Diego State University, Tan Tao University, and Université Paris 10, and was a guest speaker at conferences in Europe, North America, and Asia. Chris has authored, translated, or edited more than 20 volumes and (co-)authored hundreds of literary and academic articles. As a founding member of the multi(-digital-)media poetry, painting/video, and music band MARGENTO, he won the Fringiest Event Award (Buxton Fringe, UK, 2005), the press’ mention (Adelaide Fringe, Australia, 2006), and The Golden Record (Romania, 2008). He opened the first edition of Euro Poetry Slam Festival (Berlin, 2009) and was invited to perform at the E-Poetry World Festival (London, 2013), as well as in the CROWD Omnibus Literary Tour (Germany and Austria, 2016). Chris is currently conducting a funded research within the Computer Science Department at the University of Ottawa, where he is developing the Graph Poem project. He is also the director of the new Digital Humanities program at the same university and editor-at-large of the literary magazine Asymptote for Romania and Moldavia.
“The Figures of Language, the Language of Figures” is the last in a series of four research workshops within the project “Figura – Body, Art, Space, Language”. Their common goal is twofold: to identify new regimes of the figure through the analysis of contemporary visual objects, and to stress the interdisciplinary potential of the concept of figure in relation to the body, art, space, and language.
Research team: Laura Marin (PhD), Anca Diaconu (Băicoianu) (PhD), Vlad Ionescu (PhD), Andrei Lazăr (PhD), Alexandra Irimia (PhD student), Alina Mihai (PhD student), and Alex Maxim (project technician).
Website: figura.unibuc.ro
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