About this Event
This free public lecture celebrates the appointment of Tim Milnes as Personal Chair of Romantic Literature and Philosophy at the School of Literatures, Languages and Cultures, University of Edinburgh.
<h4>Ex Nihilo: Romanticism, Creativity, and the Invention of ‘Literature’</h4>
At what point did ‘literature’ (everything written) become ‘Literature’ (a kind of writing with special, even transcendent value)? This lecture traces the origins of this distinction to a fundamental realignment of philosophy and literature during the Romantic period (1790-1830), one which revolutionised the role played by literature in cultural life.
It will examine the ways in which, by rethinking writing in terms of creation from nothing (ex nihilo) rather than merely as a process of invention, writers such as William Wordsworth, Samuel Tayor Coleridge, Percy Bysshe Shelley, and John Keats evolved the notion of an absolute literary value upon which modern conceptions of ‘Literature’ and the ‘literary’ would (for better or worse) be based.
<h4>About the speaker</h4>
Professor Tim Milnes was born in 1970. He holds a first degree in English Literature and Philosophy from the University of St Andrews and a DPhil in English Literature from the University of Oxford. After gaining his DPhil, he was first a Lecturer at Christ Church College, Canterbury before becoming Junior Research Fellow at University College, Oxford. He has been at the University of Edinburgh since 2001, first as Lecturer, then becoming a Senior Lecturer in 2008. He was appointed to the Chair of Romantic Literature and Philosophy in 2022.
His research focuses on the literature and philosophy of the ‘long’ eighteenth century (1688-1832), with special emphasis on the Romantic period (1790-1832). In addition to intellectual history, his work has engaged with contemporary philosophical movements, including neopragmatism, speculative realism, and object-oriented ontology. He is currently working on a book project entitled The Waste of Romanticism.
His career highlights include three monographs: Knowledge and Indifference in English Romantic Prose (Cambridge, 2003); The Truth About Romanticism: Pragmatism and Idealism in Keats, Shelley, Coleridge (Cambridge, 2010) and The Testimony of Sense: Empiricism and the Essay from Hume to Hazlitt (Oxford, 2019) as well as a jointly edited anthology of essays (Romanticism, Sincerity, and Authenticity Palgrave, 2010) and a wide range of book chapters and five peer-reviewed articles on writers including Samuel Taylor Coleridge, William Wordsworth, Charles Lamb, William Hazlitt, David Hume, and Jeremy Bentham.
In his so-called “spare time” he indulges in oil painting (which he hopes to turn into second career after retirement), renovating old houses, and aimless countryside wanderings with son Sam.
Browse Professor Milnes's staff profile on the University of Edinburgh website
About Inaugural Lectures
Inaugural Lectures are public talks by newly-appointed Professors and Chairs at the University of Edinburgh. The lectures are free and open to all.
Browse more Inaugural Lectures on the University of Edinburgh website
Access and recording
Please note that this lecture is a free, in-person event held on the University of Edinburgh campus. It will not be live streamed - tickets are for access to the venue. However, the lecture may be photographed and/or recorded and added to the University website afterwards. If you would prefer not to appear in any recordings, please contact us in advance or speak to us on the day. It's not a problem.
Event Venue & Nearby Stays
50 George Square Lecture Theatre (G.03), University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, United Kingdom
GBP 0.00