Topics in Literature and Philosophy: Word and Omen

Divination might be defined as the attempt to detect sense in passing circumstance, from the flight of birds and planetary motions to handwriting and coffee grounds. This seminar focuses on speech as an object of such divination. We study oracles and prophecies, riddles, Freudian slips and other uncanny transmissions. At the same time, we discuss the techniques of reading to which such alleged omens have given rise in literature, criticism, religion, and psychoanalysis.