The talk focuses on Richard Powers’s novel The Overstory (2018), whose branching structure recreates the interdependency between humans and plants. Caracciolo argues that a renewed interest in narrative form can greatly benefit contemporary discussions on human-nonhuman interrelation in literature.
The lecture also launches the work of the Helsinki team of the Academy of Finland Consortium “Instrumental Narratives”. After the lecture there will be a short panel discussion by members of the consortium on topics raised by Prof. Caracciolo’s lecture. The panel is moderated by HCAS alumna Merja Polvinen, the PI of the Helsinki branch of the consortium, and the participants include, in addition to Marco Caracciolo, Kaisa Kortekallio, Bo Pettersson, Hanna-Riikka Roine (HCAS) and Jouni Teittinen. Following the discussion, we will raise a glass to celebrate Prof. Caracciolo’s visit and the launch of the Finnish Academy research consortium in Helsinki.
Abstract for the guest lecture “Facing the Nonhuman Through Form and Narrative” by Marco Caracciolo:
The “nonhuman turn” is Richard Grusin’s term for work that, in various subfields of the humanities and social sciences, challenges the boundary between human culture and the biological, climatological, and geological realities of our planet. The nonhuman has had a significant impact on literary scholarship as well, particularly in areas such as ecocriticism and the study of literature and science. This talk argues that a renewed interest in form, and narrative form more specifically, can greatly benefit contemporary discussions on human-nonhuman interrelation in literature. Conceptualizing form as a pattern that is simultaneously textual and affective, Caracciolo will explore how literature can encapsulate—through the formal means of storytelling—what David Abram calls the “ever-shifting patterns” of the nonhuman world. More concretely, the talk will focus on the novel The Overstory (2018) by Richard Powers.
Marco Caracciolo is an Assistant Professor of English and Literary Theory at the University of Ghent, where he coordinates the ERC Starting Grant project “Narrating the Mesh” (NARMESH). He received a PhD in Comparative Literature from the University of Bologna in 2012, and before Ghent, he has held fellowships in Hamburg, Groningen, and Freiburg, and has been a “Project Narrative” visiting scholar at Ohio State University. His work focuses on the phenomenology of narrative and second-generation cognitive approaches to literature, as well as the relationship between narrative and scientific models, particularly models that challenge the human-scale world of bodily experience. His major publications include The Experientiality of Narrative: An Enactivist Approach (2014); and Strange Narrators in Contemporary Fiction: Explorations in Readers’ Engagement with Characters (2016). For more information, see Caracciolo's profile on the Ghent University website.
Marco Caracciolo’s visit to Helsinki is funded by the Faculty of Arts at the University of Helsinki.
The event is free and open to all, check out the University of Helsinki events calendar here.
Contact:
HCAS Project Planner Kaisa Kaakinen
kaisa.kaakinen@helsinki.fi, 0294122493