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<blockquote type=cite class=cite cite><font size=4><b>STS Brown Bag Lunch
Talk</b></font><br><br>
<font size=4><b>Speaker: Perikles Monioudis, Writer-in-Residence at
MIT</b></font><br><br>
<font size=4><b>"In the Ether. A Poetological Exploration of Science
and a Scientific Exploration of Poetics"<br>
</b></font><br>
<font size=4><b>Thursday, May 19th<br>
E51-191, 12-1:30</b></font><br>
<br>
In Monioudis' talk, poetics will be revived as a distinct category for
creating knowledge in the space between the exact sciences on the one
hand and the humanistic sciences on the other. The term ether has
been used in very diverse contexts, i.e. in physics, philosophy,
theology, and poetics. All attempts to define the ether, "the fifth
element" as the Greeks called it diverge greatly. According to
Aristotle, ether is the heavenly Ur-matter in which all planets move, a
notion that René Descartes expanded on, postulating that ether penetrates
everything. Whereas Einstein denied the existence of the physical ether,
quantum physics revived the term again. Monioudis introduces
someone living in the ether: a Poet and Telegrapher at
sea.<br><br>
Perikles Monioudis was born in Switzerland and lives in Berlin. His many
novels, novellas and collections of short stories have been translated
into several languages and have received many prizes, including the Swiss
Writers’ Association Prize and the Swiss Schiller Foundation Prize.
Monioudis is teaching German literature in the FL&L department this
spring semester.<br><br>
Perikles provided a translation of his paper (see attached). <br>
Please feel free to bring your lunch. We will provide coffee and
dessert. <br>
See you on the 19th at noon!</blockquote><br>
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