Athanassia Williamson

Aufenthalt

September 2026 – August 2027

Forschungsthema

»Skepticism and the Novel. Critical Theory after Narrative«

Projektbeschreibung

At a moment when liberal democracies face renewed challenges from the erosion of trust in shared forms of knowledge, how has literature served as a source of critical knowledge about the changing social and political world? What claims can be made for the novel’s continuing power to shape the criticism and re-imagining of democratic forms of life? My first book project, Skepticism and the Novel, pursues these questions at the juncture of literature and philosophy, engaging broader problems of aesthetics, critical thought, and the politics of form. Offering a renewed understanding of the novel, from the nineteenth century onward, as an art form that transforms social and historical experience into a fiction grounded in skepticism toward that experience, my book argues that the novel has shaped the thought of twentieth-century critical theory. Philosophy and critical theory have repeatedly turned to the novel because of its democratic form of knowing: shaped by a skepticism toward foundational certainties and a responsiveness to shifting social experiences—a responsiveness that democracy itself shares.

Wissenschaftliches Profil

Athanassia Williamson promovierte in Vergleichender Literaturwissenschaft an der New York University. Sie hat einen MSt- und einen BA-Abschluss in Anglistik von der University of Oxford. In ihrer Dissertation »Skepticism and the Novel: Critical Theory after Narrative« argumentiert sie für die zentrale Bedeutung des Romans für moderne ästhetische Theorien und für die Geschichte des kritischen Denkens, von Lukács bis Sylvia Wynter. An der NYU war sie Stipendiatin des »Dean’s Dissertation Fellowship« und des »Anaïs Nin Memorial Fellowship«. Ihre Artikel und Rezensionen sind im »Journal of the History of Ideas«, in »Critical Inquiry“ und in der »George Eliot Review« erschienen.

Forschungskontext

Athanassia Williamson ist Postdoktorandin im Rahmen des Forschungsschwerpunktes »Democratic Vistas: Reflections on the Atlantic World« am Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften der Goethe-Universität Frankfurt. Ihr Aufenthalt wird vom John McCloy Transatlantic Forum am Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften finanziert.