MLA-Panel 2026: Politics of Enlightenment, Toronto
Sponsored by the G. E. Lessing Society
Lessing and his contemporaries’ literary and critical writing demonstrates various forms of theory and practice as well as critique of the Enlightenment. We look for new readings that render the critically nuanced and sophisticated politics of these authors’ texts newly legible as they explore emancipatory forms of enlightenment that critically resonate at the current historical juncture. This includes reconnecting themes and arguments from Horkheimer and Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightenment and Lyotard, Derrida’s and others’ call for a new enlightenment, and other new approaches to a critical project that today has assumed renewed and immediate urgency.
Send 250 words abstracts by March 15, 2025, to Willi Goetschel w.goetschel@utoronto.ca
Contact Information
Willi Goetschel, University of Toronto, w.goetschel@utoronto.ca
Contact Email
w.goetschel@utoronto.ca