Welcome to the Future Literature, Future Art project home page. The relationship between literature and criticism has undergone radicalisation in the last century. The very clarity of the distinction between the two has become problematic, with various kinds of fusions and blurrings between the two coming to the fore. Certain theorists, such as Derrida, and certain writers, such as Pynchon, have been especially associated with such developments. This project aims to offer a genealogy of such movements back to earlier literature and thought, while also providing an inter- and multi-disciplinary analysis of the complex contemporary situation. This project will also look to the futures of this enigmatic relationship.

The project will critically engage with a number of core themes:

• Epochs of literature
• Genealogy of critical discourse on literature
• Relation between various literary genres
• Blurring of literature/criticism distinction
• Philosophy and Literature
• Contemporary religious experience in literature
• Digital and virtual literature
• Conflicts in contemporary literature
• Disciplinary topics in literature
• Regionalism and contemporary literature
• Literature and education/the university
• Avant-gardism
• The future of literature and criticism

Related themes will also be identified for development and exploration. Out of our deliberations it is anticipated that a series of related cross context research projects will develop.