International Conference Phenomenology as Performative Exercise

CONCEPT

“All my life has been learning to see and exercising”. It is such terms that Edmund Husserl described the phenomenological praxis. Phenomenology, therefore, is not a theoretical doctrine, but an exercise. It means learning to see and to experience and hence involves a shift of perspective, i.e. a transformation of our way of experiencing things. This exercise has a critical character, since it focuses our attention on those conceptions which objectify ourselves, others and the world. From this perspective, the conference aims to connect the phenomenological approach to the paradigm of performativity. For the first time J. L. Austin with the concept of “performative”, pointed to a dimension of language which does not describe a state of affairs, but rather performs an action, thus making things with words. Jacques Derrida radicalized Austin’s conception from a phenomenological perspective, by arguing that every praxis involves a performative dimension, since it constitutes itself in repetition, bringing out effects into the world that re-act retrospectively upon praxis as such. Moreover, Michel Foucault's discourse analysis and Judith Butler's gender studies describe subject-constitution as a performative process. In this way, they also open up to the possibility of resistance and transformation. The concept of performativity involves a bright polivocity as well as an increasing centrality. The aim of the conference is to systematically connect phenomenology and performativity. This connection aims on the one hand to understand phenomenology in a new way, that is: as a performative exercise. On the other hand, it intends to offer a critical perspective on the “performative turn” as well.

Registration / Contact

The conference is open to anyone. International guests are particularly welcome. Attendance is free of charge but registration is required. If you want to attend the conference, please register before 25th August 2017 by sending an email to:

PROGRAM

31 August 2017
Venue: Altana Galerie

09:15 Opening: Lucilla Guidi, Thomas Rentsch

I Session - Phenomenology as Transformation
Chair: Thomas Rentsch

9:30-10:30 D. O. Dahlstrom (Boston University) Formalization, Enactment and Performativity
10:30-11:30 Dorothée Legrand (École Normale Supérieure) Suspension: How to Receive what Arrives?
11:30-11:50 Coffee break
11:50- 12:50 Hagi Kenaan (Tel Aviv University) Phenomenology and Transience: On how to Say Goodbye (and Say Hello)
12:50-14:30 Lunch

II Session - Phenomenology and Forms of Life
Chair: Lucilla Guidi

14:30-15:30 Antonio Cimino (Radboud University)  The Performativity of Philosophical Language
15:30-16:30 Michela Summa (Universität Würzburg)  Expression and Performativeness. A Reassessment
16:30-16:50 Coffee break
16:50-17:50 Christian Bermes (Universität Koblenz-Landau) Performanz und Stil in Husserls Lebenswelt
20:00 –  Dinner

1 September 2017
Venue: Altana Galerie

III Session – Phenomenology, Action and Experience 
Chair: Michela Summa

09:30-10:30 Vincenzo Vitiello (Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele di Milano)  Aletheia und Nomos - Performativität und Sprache, oder: vom Sein zum Sollen
10:30-11:30 Diego D’Angelo (KU Leuven) Gadamer Reader of Plato. Performative Exercises in Phenomenological Reading
11:30-11:50 Coffee break
11:50-12:50 Lucilla Guidi (Technische Universität Dresden)  Phenomenology as Transformative Experience
12:50-14:30 Lunch

IV Session – Affects and Criticism
Chair: Karl Kraatz

14:30-15:30 Iris Laner (Akademie der bildenden Künste, Wien/Universität Tübingen)  Performing Criticism. Phenomenological Considerations of Contending Bodies
15:30-15:50 Coffee break
15:50-16:50 Jan Slaby  (Freie Universität Berlin) Affect and History: From Heidegger to Afro-Pessimism
19:30 Dinner

2 September 2017
Venue: Altana Galerie

V Session – Phenomenology and mediality
Chair: Lucas von Ramin

09:00-10:00 Susan Kozel  (Malmö University) Affective Choreographies
10:00-11:00 Federica Buongiorno (Technische Universität Dresden)  Extended Selves. Phenomenological Remarks on Digital Processes of Subjectification
11:00-11:20 Coffee break

VI Session - Philosophy as Critical Exercise
Chair: Chris Bremmers

11:20-12:20 Francisco de Lara (Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile) Performativität, Dialektik und Kritik bei Heidegger, Gadamer und Adorno
12:20-14:00 Lunch
14:00-15:00 Maren Wehrle (KU Leuven) Embodied Experience: Between Normalization and Performativity
15:00-16:00 Thomas Rentsch (Technische Universität Dresden) Performativität als Sinnkonstitution und Sinnkritik