>
>
>ìWittgenstein in the 21st century: Saying, Showing, and Academic Language
>Gamesî
>
>2003 NEMLA Conference (March 6-9)
>Boston, MA
>
>Within the spheres of arts and humanities, no canonical philosopher has been
>so often and diversely invoked as Ludwig Wittgenstein. His two primary texts
>ó _Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus_ and later _Philosophical Investigations_
>ó inflect works from disciplines as various as performance art, opera, and
>literary theory. How is this so? Why the work of Wittgenstein?
>
>In _Wittgensteinís Ladder_, Marjorie Perloff begins an assessment of
>Wittgensteinís contemporary situation. She points to the irony of
>invocations made by late 20th century artists whose work Wittgenstein
>himself would have dismissed. Yet now, seven years after Perloffís
>publication, Wittgensteinís influence has only become more pronounced, and
>his concepts more widely summoned and remarked upon.
>
>Within the realm of literary theory, Wittgensteinís concepts of
>ordinariness, language games, and saying versus showing can be made to
>register our postmodern, deconstructive, and/or socio-cultural analyses of
>things contemporary. In this panel, we shall attempt to examine both
>academic and artistic invocations collectively, or even to assemble a
>montage of Wittgensteinís various instantiations across a broad range of
>disciplines.
>
>Papers for the panel could include discussions of specific artists or
>scholars whose work incorporates or re-envisions Wittgensteinís. They might
>situate his thought within the body of work by said artist or scholars, and
>raise questions about the role Wittgenstein plays in the agendas of others
>thinkers. Or, the papers could address Wittgensteinís legacy more
>abstractly, and even turn the tables on our own contemporary preoccupations.
>How can the work of one thinker resonate so broadly and across generations?
>
>Please submit a 250-500 word abstract to Ellen McWhorter
>([log in to unmask]) by September 15, 2002. Attachments preferred.
>
>