We Have Always Been Medieval: Bruno Latour and the Premodern
Katherine Ibbett (University of Oxford)
Miri Rubin (Queen Mary University of London)
Sarah Salih (King’s College London)
Chair: Robert Mills (University College London)
Tuesday, 5 May 2020
6:00 PM
IAS Forum
Ground Floor, South Wing, Wilkins Building
University College London UK
Gower Street, London WC1E 6BT
All welcome; No booking required
Reception to follow
Panel Discussion to Launch Romanic Review 111.1 (2020):
Category Crossings: Bruno Latour and Medieval Modes of Existence
Guest Editors: Marilynn Desmond (Binghamton University), Noah Guynn (UC Davis)
Contributors: Anke Bernau, Emma Campbell, Marilynn Desmond, Mary Franklin-Brown,
Jane Gilbert, Miranda Griffin, Noah Guynn, Catherine Keen, Luke Sunderland.
Afterword by Graham Harman.
From We Have Never Been Modern to An Inquiry into Modes of Existence, Bruno Latour’s philosophical project has long been conceived as a critique of ‘Modernity’, starting with Enlightenment dualisms (nature/culture, words/things, sacred/secular) and extending to the Cyber Age’s promise of unmediated access to knowledge (what Latour calls ‘Double Click’). The contributors to this volume consider the relevance of this critique for the study of the medieval premodern and ask how Latour’s call for a renewal of metaphysics – and for a diplomatic encounter between the various modes of existence – might be used to defamiliarize ‘Modern’ intellectual habits. The essays assembled here examine a range of medieval artifacts and genres, including travelogues, historiography, diplomacy, romances, manuscripts, encyclopedias, bestiaries, theology, and theatre.
