John Guillory (NYU): Scholarship, Activism, and the Autonomy of Social Spheres

This paper is an attempt to clarify a longstanding controversy in the history of humanities scholarship in the university, namely its relation to political activism, and to the political in general. Guillory’s hypothesis is that the appropriate frame for understanding this relation is the autonomy of social spheres, as expressed in the historical tendency of different spheres to become depoliticized over time. The paradigm case for this tendency is the depoliticization of the religious sphere with the end of the wars of religion at the beginning of the eighteenth century. He argues that depoliticization enabled the development of autonomous social spheres, resulting in many social benefits, beginning with the condition of peace following the wars of religion. At the same time, autonomous social spheres are periodically subject to re-politicization for various reasons, a tendency manifest in university scholarship at the present moment. Guillory examines several recent arguments defending the identity of scholarship with political activism, attempting to grasp thereby the forces impelling politicization and depoliticization.

John Guillory is the Julius Silver Professor at New York University. His research focuses on two areas: early modern literature, and the histories of criticism, literary theory, and literary scholarship.

The event is part of the ZfL Annual Conference Activism and Academia. Fields and Methods in Academic Activism.

An event of the ZfL in cooperation with the Dahlem Humanities Center (DHC) and the ICI Berlin.

Please register at www.ici-berlin.org/events/john-guillory/