Event overview
A year-long seminar exploring the poetic and critical writings of Charles Baudelaire and their impact on modern and contemporary philosophical thought.
CPCT’s annual research seminar meets on a bi-weekly basis and is open to centre members, graduate affiliates, and other interested staff and students. It aims to serve as a forum for philosophical work and dialogue at Goldsmiths.
This year’s seminar is dedicated to the encounters between philosophy and the poetic and critical writings of Charles Baudelaire. Baudelaire is a pivotal reference for debates on modernity, criticism and poetics, though in the domains of critical theory his work is often approached solely through the prism of contemporary commentary. Baudelaire’s own engagement with the philosophical – for instance in his pairing of Joseph de Maistre and Edgar Allan Poe as critics of the metaphysics of “progress” – has also been insufficiently mined. The seminar will alternate sessions delving into specific poetic and critical texts by Baudelaire with ones that tackle some of the key interpretations and uses of his work within philosophy and critical theory, from Bataille to Derrida, Benjamin to Rancière. The seminar aims to do justice to the richness, complexity and ambiguity of Baudelaire’s critical and poetic writing, to explore his relation to philosophy and the philosophical, and to interrogate his place as a synonym for a certain conception of modernity.
We will be using the following editions of Baudelaire’s works in translation:
– Baudelaire, The Flowers of Evil (includes parallel French text). A new translation by James McGowan. Oxford World’s Classics (Oxford: OUP, 1993; 1998; 2008).
– Baudelaire, Selected Writings on Art and Literature. Translated by P. E. Charvet. Penguin Classics. (London: Penguin, 1972; 1992; 2006).
Readings and further details via https://cpct.uk/2018-2019/
Convened by Alberto Toscano and Julia Ng.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 3 Oct 2018 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm | |
| 17 Oct 2018 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm | |
| 31 Oct 2018 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm | |
| 14 Nov 2018 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm | |
| 12 Dec 2018 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm | |
| 23 Jan 2019 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm | |
| 6 Feb 2019 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm | |
| 20 Feb 2019 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm | |
| 6 Mar 2019 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm | |
| 20 Mar 2019 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm | |
| 8 May 2019 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm | |
| 22 May 2019 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm | |
| 5 Jun 2019 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm | |
| 19 Jun 2019 | 4:00pm - 6:00pm |
Accessibility
If you are attending an event and need the College to help with any mobility requirements you may have, please contact the event organiser in advance to ensure we can accommodate your needs.
