RELIF

The focus of interest for the research group “Rhetoric, Literature, Philosophy” at the Department of Literature, Uppsala University, are the intersections of the study of rhetoric, literature and philosophy. The group offers a platform where questions concerning the philosophy of/in/through rhetoric and literature are to be formulated and explored. One aim of the group, albeit not the overarching one, is to find cross-disciplinary points of contact between the study of rhetoric and the study of literature – points of contact that can be of mutual philosophical significance for both areas of scholarship. Typical general interests involve:

• Theory of text/texts
• Rhetorical philosophical anthropology, in its own right but also as manifested in bodies of literature
• Understanding the construction of social meaning in literature as well as in rhetoric
• Literary strategies/rhetorical tools
• Philosophical problematics pertaining specifically to, or raised by, the study of rhetoric and/or literature
• The historically ambiguous roles of literature and rhetoric as both competing with, and constituting, a form of “Other” for philosophy (as in “the ancient quarrel” between philosophy and poetry, as well the disputes between philosophers and sophists, both traceable back to the works of Plato)

The group aims to facilitate both existing research projects within its scope of interest, as well as to promote and generate new research ideas and projects (individual and collective) among its members.