About the Group
We see time as a central determinant of the ways individuals, groups, and social formations shape themselves and their experiences; our research aims to illuminate different forms of temporal experience and their imbrication with all aspects of social life.
Art, literature, and other modes of temporal comportment not only participate in established temporal rhythms, they test out or experiment with new and alternative constructions of time, rhythm, and social form. Our research proposes an understanding of literary and visual texts as temporal experiments that explore different ways of thinking, experiencing, and living time. In their experimentation with new modes of constructing time, aesthetic texts also work on their audiences, inculcating in them particular social rhythms, forms of temporal awareness, and embodied habits of mind. These temporal experiments take place both on the level of form and content.
Our research project investigates both contemporary and historical forms of temporality. On the one hand, the project responds to the increasing problems related to time and the regulation of life rhythms in today's society (e.g. time deficit, attention deficit, blurring of the boundary between work life and private life, the rise of a "24/7 society"). On the other hand, the project pursues a historical or genealogical investigation of different forms of thinking and living time.
Activities
The research group meets regularly to discuss theoretical readings on time and temporality. We have previously discussed texts by Antonio Negri, Jonathan Crary, Augustine, Jacques Derrida, Martin Heidegger, Gilles Deleuze, Ernst Bloch, Georges Didi-Huberman, Jean-François Lyotard, G.W.F Hegel, Megan Burke, and a few others.
Activities 2024:
- February 27th: First, Georgios gives a brief presentation of his PhD project, followed by Q&As. Second, we discuss Jacques Rancière's "Time, Narrative, Politics," the first chapter of Modern Times (2018/2022).
- April 5th, 14.00-16.00: Reading seminar: Luce Irigaray, The Forgetting of Air in Martin Heidegger (L’Oubli de l’air chez Martin Heidegger, 1983, translation from 1999) - excerpts selected by Else.
Activities 2023:
- February 20th: Reading Seminar. Fanny Söderback, Revolutionary Time
- April 17th: Workshop at Holmenkollen Park Hotel (all day)
- April, 21st, 14.15-16: Book launch Temporal Experiments: Seven Ways of Configuring Time in Art and Literature. Seminar room 1. Sophus Bugge.
- Presentation of the book by the editors, Bruce Barnhart and Marit Grøtta,
- Bruce Barnhart: On "rhythm " as a temporal figure
- Tina Skouen: On "kairos" as a temporal figure
- Panel discussion: Temporal experiments in literature, art and everyday life. Tina Skouen, Bruce Barnhart, and Marit Grøtta
- Ca. 15.20-16.00: Refreshments, mingling & poster exhibition
- May 3rd at 14.15: Tempo coffee meeting
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September 4 (Monday) at 15.30 (NT 718): Informal coffee, hello to new members & visitors
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September 18 (Monday) 14.00: Reading seminar: New Materialism. Charles T. Wolfe: "Materialism and Temporality" + Jane Bennett.
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October 9 (Monday): 14.00 María Elena presents work in progress - on Anne Carson's Men in the Off Hours.
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November 6 (Monday): 14.00: Reading seminar: Temporality in Robert Musil's The Man without Qualities (Der Mann ohne Eigenschaften) - excerpts selected by Lukas, who will also give a brief introduction.
Edited Book
Over the last two years, we have organized workshops related to the group’s book project. The book, entitled Temporal Experiments: Seven Ways of Configuring Time in Art and Literature, is an edited collection of essays focused on the ways artworks experiment with time and reshape existing temporal configurations. It was published with Routledge in January 2023 (a paperback version is planned for later release).
The book is a critical investigation of the tactile figures in which time is embodied, and of the role these figures play in shaping our sense of the possible. Each chapter pivots on a key temporal figure: event, habit, idleness, kairos, rhythm, ritual, and transit. These figures are explored from an aesthetic vantage point, i.e. from the perspective of specific artworks that put these figures through their paces. In working through the temporal movements of novels, films, musical recordings, sculpture, and poetry, our book makes the case that artworks offer a privileged site for investigating time in its not-yet-fully assembled state. The book features essays by Christian Refsum, Aron Vinegar, Marit Grøtta, Tina Skouen, Bruce Barnhart, Emma Heggdal, and Per Sigurd Tveitevåg Styve, and is edited by Bruce Barnhart and Marit Grøtta.
Doctoral Projects
The research group’s host department, ILOS, announces PhD fellowships in literature once a year (usually in November/December). We welcome PhD fellows with promising doctoral projects that clearly relate to the research foci of the group (we will be able to supervise projects on English language literature, Scandinavian literature, French literature, German literature, comparative projects, as well as interdisciplinary projects that involve visual studies, film studies and/or art history).