Christian Knirsch

CCGES is pleased to present a talk by Christian Knirsch (PhD candidate, Universität Mannheim, CCGES Resident Research Associate) at which he will present an overview of his dissertation project examining conceptions of the veil in British and American novels and short stories from four epochs in literary history, Romanticism/Transcendentalism, Realism, Modernism, and Postmodernism.

“Ever since the Enlightenment, Western philosophy has been dominated by the ocularcentric presumption that seeing equals knowing. If seeing equals knowing, the veil is not only a symbol of mediated vision but also a symbol of reality conceptions. My hypothesis is that the depiction of the veil in literary texts varies in accordance with changes in the respective contemporary conceptions of reality which, in turn, are always a result of a mutual exchange between the natural sciences and the humanities. By focusing on the veil as a visual as well as an epistemological and ontological metaphor, I contend that a new perspective on several canonised novels and short stories of British and American literature can be gained.”

Time: 12:30-2:00 pm
Location: 764 York Research Tower