Unknowable in Literature and Material Culture

Literature strives to interpret and explain the unknown, and to propose ways in which to engage with it-even if, at least initially, these keys exist only in the realm of the imagination. This is one of the many important qualities that draw us to study literature, and to marvel at the creative understandings that it offers. However, many questions call for further exploration: how does something "e;unknowable"e;, unspeakable, become a subject that can be examined and debated? How have literary and scientific communities entered into the dialogue and exchange that are crucial to the consolidation of knowledge? By what processes can we come to know and understand that which remains hidden, undocumented, unspoken, poorly understood: the memories, secrets, "e;unknowable"e; and "e;unspeakable"e; truths of public and private human lives?Inspired by questions such as these, the contributors to this volume reflect on fin de siecle discourses around homosexuality and sexual "e;inversion"e;, on Emile Zola as seeker of concealed truths and figure of scandal, on the modes and crises of representing human experience in literary and visual forms, and on the dialogic space between self and other.

Literature strives to interpret and explain the unknown, and to propose ways in which to engage with it-even if, at least initially, these keys exist only in the realm of the imagination. This is one of the many important qualities that draw us to study literature, and to marvel at the creative understandings that it offers. However, many questions call for further exploration: how does something "e;unknowable"e;, unspeakable, become a subject that can be examined and debated? How have literary and scientific communities entered into the dialogue and exchange that are crucial to the consolidation of knowledge? By what processes can we come to know and understand that which remains hidden, undocumented, unspoken, poorly understood: the memories, secrets, "e;unknowable"e; and "e;unspeakable"e; truths of public and private human lives?Inspired by questions such as these, the contributors to this volume reflect on fin de siecle discourses around homosexuality and sexual "e;inversion"e;, on Emile Zola as seeker of concealed truths and figure of scandal, on the modes and crises of representing human experience in literary and visual forms, and on the dialogic space between self and other.