“Essay Crossings”: Reading and Discussion Seminar
On March 20, at 6:00 p.m., the Reading and Discussion Seminar “Essay Crossings” will begin, running from March to July at Edições do Saguão.
In this first session, João Pedro Cachopo will guide a discussion of Jean Starobinski’s “Is It Possible to Define the Essay?”, which will serve as a point of departure for a broader reflection on the very scope of the initiative. What is the nature of intellectual work in the arts and humanities? How are thought and writing related? Can form be separated from content in the social sciences and humanities? What kind of rigor characterizes the essay form, and to what extent is it important to cultivate it today, in an age marked by technological acceleration and by the difficulty – both inside and outside academia – of confronting it in a manner that is at once lucid, ambitious and critical?
Each session takes a single text – essay, article, or chapter – as its focus, with its presentation taken on by a speaker chosen from among the seminar participants. There is no predefined reading program, since each session raises intellectual concerns and challenges that can and should determine the choice of the subsequent text. Students from all degree cycles at NOVA FCSH, as well as interested researchers and faculty members, are invited to participate, without disciplinary or institutional restrictions.
Coordinated by João Pedro Cachopo, “Essays Crosssings” is organized by CESEM’s Research Cluster on Thought and Music, continuing its reading seminar active since October 2020.
