Staff Profile

Biography

BA (hons) Philosophy (Manchester)

PhD Philosophy (Manchester Metropolitan University)

I joined Creative Writing in 2015. Prior to that, I taught philosophy for many years at Newcastle University.

I have published six novels, which, by their formal experimentalism and subject-matter, are rooted in European traditions of literature, and have been linked by reviewers to Beckett and Bernhard. My novels reflect my interests in the Continental European thought and are fundamentally comic in style and vision. They have been translated into several languages and long- and shortlisted for various awards.

I have also published widely on aesthetics, with special emphasis on the philosophy of literature, and have a particular interest in the philosophy of music.

Expertise

My areas of research expertise are literary fiction and philosophy. I am particularly interested in the overlap between the two.

Both my fiction and philosophical expertise are rooted in the work of continental philosophy from the nineteenth century onwards. 

I have a strong interest in aesthetics (broadly construed) and on the philosophy of music. 

Research Interests

My fiction is fundamentally comic and rooted in continental-philosophical and literary writings of the past century. This reflects my own intellectual background.

To date, I have published six novels, the first three of which comprise the Spurious trilogy: Spurious (2011), Dogma (2012), Exodus (2013). The next three, Wittgenstein Jr (2014), Nietzsche and the Burbs (2019) and My Weil (2023) comprise a much more loosely constructed trilogy, linked only by theme and narrative approach, each of which takes the life of a world-famous philosopher as their narrative template and stylistic guide, recasting these historical thinkers in contemporary Britain.

My novels seek to dramatize and make relevant central philosophical ideas for a contemporary audience. My 'fiction as thought' or 'literary philosophy' has been widely reviewed and discussed by literary scholars. 

Dogma and Exodus were books of the year in the Guardian. Exodus was shortlisted for the Goldsmith Prize. Wittgenstein Jr was a book of the year in the Telegraph and shortlisted for the Jerwood Foundation Award.. My work has been translated into several languages.

I have published widely in philosophy, writing many articles and two monographs on Maurice Blanchot (Blanchot’s Communism: Art, Philosophy and the Political (Palgrave Macmillan, 2003) and Blanchot’s Vigilance: Literature, Phenomenology and the Ethical (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)). 

I continue to write and publish philosophical essays.

Postgraduate Supervision 

I welcome applications from students wanting to work on creative writing, literary theory, the philosophy of literature, aesthetics, and continental philosophy from the nineteenth century to the present.

Current PhD students:

Ben Page, creative writing

Ambrose Galea (with University of Malta), creative writing

Angelos Evangeledis (with European Graduate School), philosophy

Kristen Koromilas (with European Graduate School), philosophy

Alejandro Fargosonini (with European Graduate School), philosophy

Past PhD students:

Stuart John Arnot, The ‘Dissensual’ Community: Aesthetics and Democracy in Improvised Music, 2023

Chiara Pellegrini Giampietro, Transforming Narratology: embodied Voices and Queer Temporalities in Post-Classical fictions, 2021.

Stephen Overy, The Genealogy of Nick Land's Anti-Anthropocentric Philosophy: A Psychoanalytic Conception of Machinic Desire, 2016

Adam Potts, From Active to Passive Noise: Rethinking the Radicalism of Japanese Noise Music, 2014

Will Schrimshaw, A Sound Takes Place: Noise, Difference and Sonorous Individuation After Deleuze, 2013

Links

Discussion of Nietzsche and the Burbs as a guest speaker at Queen Mary, University of London: https://vimeo.com/487204290

A recent written interview with me: https://htmlgiant.com/interviews-2/dancing-star-an-interview-with-lars-iyer/ and another one here: http://www.full-stop.net/2020/03/18/interviews/michael-schapira/lars-iyer-2/

A sample review of my first trilogy: https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/stupid-men-in-moldy-flats-on-lars-iyers-trilogy/

A sample review of Nietzsche and the Burbs: https://stingingfly.org/review/nietzsche-and-the-burbs/

• Articles

  • Iyer L. A Literary Manifesto after the End of Literature and Manifestos, or Nude in Your Hot Tub with a Good View of the Abyss. Post Road 2012, 22, 139-149.
  • Iyer L. Impersonal Speech: Blanchot, Virno, Messianism. Journal for Cultural Research 2009, 13(3-4), 281-296.
  • Iyer L. Speaking the Real: Richard Middleton's Voicing the Popular. Radical Musicology 2008, 3.
  • Iyer L. The Fact of Language: Recent Literature on Blanchot. Journal for Cultural Research 2007, 11(3), 265-282.
  • Iyer L. There is Language: Speech and Writing in Blanchot. Parallax 2006, 12(2), 83-97.
  • Iyer L. Logos and Difference Blanchot, Heidegger, Heraclitus . Parallax 2005, 11(2), 14-24.
  • Iyer LK. Capitalism and Religion: a review. Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory 2004, 5(2), 115-122.
  • Iyer L. Write! Write! Blanchot, Kofman and Levinas on Witnessing. Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory 2003, 5(1), 58-83.
  • Iyer L. The workless community: Blanchot, communism, surrealism. Paragraph 2003, 26(3), 51-69.
  • Iyer L. The Unbearable. Trauma and Witnessing in Blanchot and Levinas. Janus Head 2003, 6(1), 37-63.
  • Iyer L. The Movement of Testimony: Affliction in Blanchot and Antelme. Journal of Social and Political Thought 2003, 2(1).
  • Iyer L. The Impossibility of Loving. Blanchot, Sexual Difference, Community. The Journal of Cultural Research 2003, 7(3), 227-242.
  • Iyer L. El templo de la noche. Reflexiones sobre el origen de la obra de arte en Blanchot y en Heidegger. Asociación de Estudios Filosóficos 2003, 17(3), 25-43.
  • Iyer L. Death and responsibility, the 'work' of Levinas. Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 2003, 34(1), 101-103.
  • Iyer L. The City and the Stars. Politics and Alterity in Heidegger, Levinas and Blanchot. Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory 2002, 3(3), 1-15.
  • Iyer L. Literary Communism. Blanchot’s Conversations with Bataille and Levinas. Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy 2002, 6(1), 45-62.
  • Iyer L. Levinas on Existence. Journal of the British Society for Phenomenology 2002, 33(1), 39-51.
  • Iyer L. Blanchot, narration, and the event. Postmodern Culture 2002, 12(3), u25-u48.
  • Iyer L. The Sphinx’s Gaze. Art, Friendship and Philosophical in Blanchot and Levinas’. Southern Journal of Philosophy 2001, 39(2), 189-206.
  • Iyer L. The Birth of Philosophy in Poetry. Blanchot, Char, Heraclitus. Janus Head, Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Continental Philosophy, Literature, Phenomenological Psychology and the Arts 2001, 4(2), 358-383.
  • Iyer L. Our Responsibility. Blanchot’s Communism. Contretemps, an Online Journal of Philosophy 2001, 2, 59-73.
  • Iyer L. Cave Paintings and Wall Writings. Blanchot’s Signature. Angelaki 2001, 6(3), 31-43.
  • Iyer L. The Paradoxes of Fidelity. Blanchot, Philosophy and Critical Commentary. Symposium, Journal of the Canadian Society for Hermeneutics and Postmodern Thought 2000, 4(2), 189-208.
  • Iyer L. Born With the Dead: Blanchot's Mourning. Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities 2000, 5(3), 39-50.

• Authored Books

  • Iyer L. My Weil. New York: Melville House, 2023.
  • Iyer L. Nietzsche and the Burbs. New York: Melville House, 2019.
  • Iyer L. Wittgenstein Jr. New York: Melville House, 2014.
  • Iyer L. Exodus. New York: Melville House, 2013.
  • Iyer L. Spurious. New York: Melville House Press, 2011.
  • Iyer L. Dogma. New York: Melville House, 2011.
  • Iyer L. Blanchot’s Vigilance: Literature, Phenomenology and the Ethical. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.
  • Iyer L. Blanchot’s Communism: Art, Philosophy and the Political. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004.

• Book Chapters

  • Iyer L. The Being of Noise. In: Long D; Thomas R, ed. Noise/Silence. Dublin: Irish Museum of Modern Art/ Dublin Contemporary 2011, 2009, pp.4-5.
  • Iyer L. Our Responsibility: Blanchot's Communism. In: Roma, V, ed. The Unavowable Community. Barcelona: Actar, 2009, pp.87-112.
  • Iyer L. Blanchot, Levinas et l’érotique. In: Hoppenot, E, ed. L'Oeuvre du Féminin dans l'écriture de Maurice Blanchot. Paris, France: Éditions complicitiés, 2004, pp.243-258.

• Online Publications

  • Iyer L. Desnudo en la bañera, asomado al abismo (Manifiesto literario tras el fin de la literatura y los manifiestos). Spain: fronterad, 2012.

• Review

  • Iyer L. Capitalism and Religion. Journal of Religious and Cultural Theory 2004, 5(2), 115-122.

• Working Paper