All are welcome to the workshop.

Please email Chelsea Christine Hill (chelseahill@uchicago.edu) and Nishan Varatharajan (ndv@uchicago.edu) if you have any questions or require accommodations to participate.

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Abstract: In the introduction to my dissertation, “Modernism and Its Vulnerable Narrators,” I illuminate a strand of Austro-German literary modernism that is defined not by an ethos of defiance, but by an increased consciousness that one’s modernity is won at a price. Hence, in the works of all the authors and thinkers I examine, there is a fundamental ambiguity toward the text’s own “modernity”—its liberation from tradition, its achievement of artistic freedom, and its self-reflective consciousness. Vulnerable modernism might be freed from the limitations of more traditional and realist representational strategies, but this freedom is simultaneously accompanied by a sense of loss, as if being modern was not a triumph, but a compromise. 

My introduction contextualizes the analysis of three writers, whose biographies are separated by more than a century: Adalbert Stifter (1805-1868), Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), and W.G. Sebald (1944-2001). Each of these writers enrich our understanding of modernism’s vulnerability, which remains largely ignored in current debates. Instead, critical literature on modernism has historically focused on a set of techniques deemed central to the works of modernist writers, placing emphasis on the progressive and innovative quality of the movement. The case of Stifter, Rilke, and Sebald illuminates, however, a more dialectically complex picture of modernism’s relation to its own innovations. This self-contradictory ambiguity is responsible for the sense of vulnerability and fragility that permeates the writing of all three authors, a writing perpetually estranged from its own potential, ideal, and desire.

Call for Papers

Proposal Deadline: September 26th, 2025

Workshop Coordinators: Chelsea Christine Hill and Nishan Varatharajan

Faculty Sponsors: Florian Klinger and Andrei Pop

The Literature and Philosophy Workshop is now seeking papers for the 2025-2026 academic year. The workshop serves as a forum for discussions about literature, philosophy, and, crucially, the intersection of the two.

To that end, we are looking for submissions that concern the following: philosophy of literature; philosophy as literature; philosophy in literature; the interaction of literary criticism, political theory, critical theory, aesthetics, and the philosophy of language in analyzing literary and philosophical works, as well as the cross-pollination of such themes with other modes and artifacts, such as psychoanalysis, rhetoric, myth, visual art (including photography, film, and new media) and music. Papers for the workshop typically engage with these topics through careful readings of selected fundamental texts and works from around the world.

If you are interested in presenting, please fill out this form by Friday, September 26th. Pre-circulated papers are generally up to 25 pages in length, double-spaced. Papers should be sent to the coordinators ten days before your scheduled workshop.

The workshop will take place in person throughout the 2025-2026 academic year. However, remote options can be arranged if needed. For any accommodations or questions, please email Chelsea Christine Hill at chelseahill@uchicago.edu or Nishan Varatharajan at ndv@uchicago.edu.

We look forward to reading your submissions. Please do not hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns.