Sublime Cognition
Sublime Cognition: Science Fiction & Metaphysics Friday 14th – Saturday 15th September 2018 School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square The Centre for Contemporary Literature is glad to be supporting the London Science Fiction Research Community’s Sublime Cognition conference, taking place 14–15 September at 43 Gordon Square, London. The conference will explore science fiction’s lost history of engagement with the mythical, magical and mystical, via papers and discussion panels featuring nearly 40 speakers. There will be keynote addresses from Roger Luckhurst and Helen De Cruz, and a roundtable discussion featuring SF authors Jeff Noon, Justina Robson and Fiona Moore. The programme is now available for viewing here. Please go here to register. What follows is a fuller description of the conference theme and programme. * Many SF critics have understood science fiction to be specifically guided by a rational empiricist epistemology, and have thus disregarded the important presence of magical, religious, spiritual and metaphysical phenomena in science fiction. Deploying the broad catch-all of ‘metaphysics’, this conference will explore SF’s lost history of engagement with the mythical and mystical. Central areas of focus will include an assessment of what role (if any) metaphysical phenomena have played in science fiction, and to what degree SF can be distanced from the spiritual, supernatural and numinous concerns of other literatures of the fantastic. Assessing SF’s complex relationship with the metaphysical opens into many other productive areas of inquiry as well: How can science fictional texts help us understand broader cultural processes of knowledge formation and paradigm shift? To what degree does SF act as a protected space for ideas that have been proposed within empiricist frameworks, but disproved and/or rejected by established scientific networks? In what way have references to religious cultures and institutions been used to reinforce or undermine normative gender roles in SF texts? How do treatments of metaphysical phenomena in Western SF differ from those which originate in other areas of the globe? How important are the symbols, tropes and imagery of an array of global religious traditions to the quality of enchantment that is as vital to SF as any other fantastic genre? The conference will feature keynote addresses by Roger Luckhurst (Birkbeck) and Helen de Cruz (Oxford Brookes), as well as a roundtable with authors Justina Robson, Jeff Noon and Fiona Moore (Royal Holloway), moderated by Jim Clarke (Coventry) Conference Organisers: Rhodri Davies (PhD, Birkbeck), Aren Roukema (PhD, Birkbeck), Francis Gene-Rowe (PhD, Royal Holloway) Schedule: Friday 14th September 9.30 – 10.00 Registration 10.00 – 10.15 Conference Introduction 10.15 – 11.15 Keynote 1 (Roger Luckhurst) 11.15 – 11.30 Break 11.30 – 12.30 Parallel Panels 1 12.30 – 13.30 Lunch 13.30 – 14.30 Parallel Panels 2 14.30 – 15.30 Parallel Panels 3 15.30 –...
Call for Papers: Sublime Cognition: Science Fiction and Metaphysics
Conference: 15th September 2018 at Birkbeck School of Arts Deadline for Abstracts: 1st May 2018 Many SF critics have understood science fiction to be specifically guided by a rational empiricist epistemology, and have thus disregarded the important presence of magical, religious, spiritual and metaphysical phenomena in science fiction. Deploying the broad catch-all of ‘metaphysics’, this conference will explore SF’s lost history of engagement with the mythical and mystical. Central areas of focus will include an assessment of what role (if any) metaphysical phenomena have played in science fiction, and to what degree SF can be distanced from the spiritual, supernatural and numinous concerns of other literatures of the fantastic. Assessing SF’s complex relationship with the metaphysical opens into many other productive areas of inquiry as well: How can science fictional texts help us understand broader cultural processes of knowledge formation and paradigm shift? To what degree does SF act as a protected space for ideas that have been proposed within empiricist frameworks, but disproved and/or rejected by established scientific networks? In what way have references to religious cultures and institutions been used to reinforce or undermine normative gender roles in SF texts? How do treatments of metaphysical phenomena in Western SF differ from those which originate in other areas of the globe? How important are the symbols, tropes and imagery of an array of global religious traditions to the quality of enchantment that is as vital to SF as any other fantastic genre? Other possible areas of research/interpretation include: Philosophical explorations of metaphysics in SF Intersections, tensions and harmonies between SF and mythical, magical or mystical traditions The science fictional sublime (e.g. cosmic or divine horror, weird ontologies, Big Dumb Objects) SF and the supernatural Intersections between theoretical science and metaphysics in speculative fiction The use of metaphysical phenomena to challenge or uphold dominant secularist or materialist discourses in SF SF and ‘pseudoscience’ SF adaptations of images, concepts and practices from religious movements large (e.g. Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, etc.) and small (e.g. Raëlism, Discordianism, etc.) Religious texts that reflect a science fictional narrative mode (e.g. in Theosophy and Scientology) New Religious Movements founded on science fiction texts (e.g. Jedism from Star Wars; The Church of All Worlds from Stranger in a Strange Land) SF as a forum for the exploration of religious experience Technological simulation/production of alternative realities in SF (e.g. VR/AR, cybergods, hallucinogenic visions) The liminal possibilities of the mind in science fiction—telepathy, clairvoyance, telekinetics, etc. Conversely, investigations of the Cartesian divide Cognitive narratology The boundaries of genre—metaphysical phenomena and definitional processes in science fiction scholarship Metaphysical phenomena and the production of utopian/dystopian modes in SF The conference will feature...
Events & Conferences
The Centre for Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck regularly hosts leading conferences, symposia and research workshops relating to all aspects of contemporary literature, culture and theoretical approaches. Forthcoming Events: 27 May 2020: The New Audacity 11-12 September 2020: Beyond Borders: Empires, Bodies, Science Fictions Past Events have included: 12-14 September 2019: Productive Futures: The Political Economy of Science Fiction 20 June 2019: The Perverse Universals of the Microeconomic Mode 22 May 2019: Terminal Documents: Re-Reading the non-Fiction of J.G. Ballard 21 May 2019: Irish Times: Myles na gCopaleen's Cruiskeen Lawn 10 November 2018: Transitions 8: Mapping New Directions in Comics Studies 31 October 2018: Booker Prize Reading and Q&A with Mohsin Hamid 14-15 September 2018: Sublime Cognition: Science Fiction & Metaphysics 1 September 2018: Utopian Acts 25 November 2017: Ruin and Rebuild: Exhibition of Urban Dereliction 27 November 2017: Booker Prize Reading and Q&A with Julian Barnes 21 September 2017: Waste: A Symposium, Papers on Disposability, Decay, and Depletion 16 September 2017: Organic Systems: Environments, Bodies and Cultures in Science Fiction 10 June 2017: Child Be Strange: A Symposium on Penda's Fen 26 May 2017: Dystopia Now Conference 16 May 2017: What Goes Around: Fifty Years of The Third Policeman 18 May 2017: He Doesn’t Talk Politics Anymore 17 May 2017: Will 2017 be 1984? 16 May 2017: The Contemporary: An Exhibition 16 May 2017: A Country Road, A Tree 10 April 2017: David Brin at Birkbeck 2 March 2017: The Limits of Estrangement Panel Discussion 25 January 2017: Eimear McBride in Conversation with Jacqueline Rose 19 November 2016: Transitions 7: Mapping New Directions in Comics Studies 1 July 2016: True Crime Fictions Conference 28 June 2016: Coming of Age Stories: Now and Then 8 June 2016: Prize Culture & Contemporary Publishing 20 May 2016: You Must Mutate: the Future of Fiction 18 May 2016: Max Porter in Conversation 18 May 2016: The Contemporary: An Exhibition 17 May 2016: Remembering Flann O'Brien 11 May 2016: Comics Studies: Beyond the Canon? 23 October 2015: Living, Thinking, Looking: An International Conference on the Writing of Siri Hustvedt 3 July 2015: Action Writing: The Politics of US Literature, 1960 to the Present 21 May 2015: Historical Fictions 18 May 2015: Environmental Futures: Oil, Ecology, Petrocultures 6-7 March 2015: Stage the Future: The 2nd Annual Science Fiction Theatre Conference 7 February 2015: Supposedly Fun Things: A Colloquium on the Writing of David Foster Wallace 15 December 2014: Booker Prize Reading and Q&A with Hilary Mantel 22 November 2014: Rupture, Crisis, Transformation: New Directions in US Studies at the End of the American Century 25 October 2014: Transitions 5: Mapping New Directions in Comics Studies 11 July 2014: Colours of Memory: An International Conference on the Writing of Geoff Dyer 20 June...
Our Events
The Centre for Contemporary Literature at Birkbeck regularly hosts leading conferences, symposia and research workshops relating to all aspects of contemporary literature, culture and theoretical approaches. We try to record as many of our events as possible. Since 2020 we have uploaded video recordings of CCL events on our YouTube channel. Past Events have included: 25 April 2023: Leaves are Alive 28 April 2023: Writing Across Worlds: In Conversation with Victor Fernando R. Ocampo May 2023: Incomparable Poetry: Reading with Dr Robert Kiely 18 April 2023: Book Launch for Corroding the Now 24 February 2023: In the Black Fantastic: Ekow Eshun in Conversation 4-5 November 2022: Transitions 10: Mapping New Directions in Comics Studies (Conference) 8-9 October 2022: SF & Extraction (6th Annual LSFRC Conference) 4 July 2022: Futurisms in Contemporary Turkey 22 June 2022: The Progressive Fantastic in Germany 22 June 2022: Migration & Documentality: Collaborative Thinking and Social Justice 19 May 2022: Writers Rebel on Hope and Climate Activism 15 October 2021: "Fifth Cinema": Theorising Refugee-Led Filmmaking 1 October 2021: Brown Girl Like Me: A Reading and Q and A with Jaspreet Kaur 9-11 September 2021: Activism and Resistance (5th Annual LSFRC Conference) 26 May 2021: Decolonizing the University 13 & 20 May 2021: Interactive Narrative Workshop with Dr Alan Trotter & Dr Mark Blacklock 18 May 2021: Writing, Rights and Literature 11 May 2021: Hannah Lowe in Conversation 7 May 2021: In Conversation: Jeremy Atherton Lin with Katherine Angel 28 April 2021: Aliens, Vampires, Surrogates: Revolutionising the Gestational Workplace 8-10 April 2021: Transitions 9: Mapping New Directions in Comics Studies (Conference) 1 March 2021: LRB Book Launch, Tomorrow Sex Will Be Good Again 26 February 2021: MIRLive featuring Femi Kayode & guests 26 February 2021: In Conversation with Jaspreet Kaur 29 January 2021: Becoming Utopian Roundtable 24 November 2020: Radical Attention Book Launch 16 November 2020: Tade Thompson Q&A 29 October 2020: Writing Shame 16 October 2020: Caryl Phillips Lecture 11-12 September 2020: Beyond Borders: Empires, Bodies, Science Fictions (4th Annual LSFRC Conference) 1 June 2020: Upstaging Ireland: The Theatre of Flann O'Brien 27 May 2020: The New Audacity 12-14 September 2019: Productive Futures: The Political Economy of Science Fiction (3rd Annual LSFRC Conference) 20 June 2019: The Perverse Universals of the Microeconomic Mode 22 May 2019: Terminal Documents: Re-Reading the Non-Fiction of J.G. Ballard 21 May 2019: Irish Times: Myles na gCopaleen's Cruiskeen Lawn 10 November 2018: Transitions 8: Mapping New Directions in Comics Studies (Conference) 31 October 2018: Booker Prize Reading and Q&A with Mohsin Hamid 14-15 September 2018: Sublime Cognition: Science Fiction & Metaphysics (2nd Annual LSFRC Conference) 1 September 2018: Utopian Acts (Conference) 25 November 2017: Ruin...
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