Review of Colby Dickinson, Words Fail: Theology, Poetry, and the Challenge of Representation

Alberto Parisi

Research

Review of Colby Dickinson, Words Fail: Theology, Poetry, and the Challenge of Representation

Review · Interdisciplinary Literary Studies 20.4 · 2018

A review of Colby Dickinson’s book on theology, poetry, and the limits of representation.

Journal: Interdisciplinary Literary Studies 20.4 (2018), 549–551
On: Colby Dickinson, Words Fail: Theology, Poetry, and the Challenge of Representation (Fordham University Press, 2017)

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Research

The history of intentionBreath & SpiritHow did spirit come to mean something separate from the body, when the word once meant breath?

Doctoral dissertation · Comparative Literature, Harvard University · 2023The Intention of the Spirit: Air, Breath, and Voice in European Poetry and PhilosophyThe doctoral dissertation from which my research on intention, breath, and atmosphere developed.

Monograph · Routledge Critical Perspectives on Breath and Breathing · under contractThe Intention of the Breath: From Breath to Spirit, from Intention to AtmosphereA history of intention, from material breath to immaterial spirit and modern ideas of atmosphere.

Co-edited volume · Bloomsbury Academic · 2027Philosophy of Breath: A Critical AnthologyA forthcoming anthology on the philosophy of breath, co-edited with Lenart Škof.

Article · Sophia 65.2 · 2026 · open access“Seneca’s Natural Questions, Book II: The Oldest Extant Account of the Stoic Conception of the Intention of the Air.”How Seneca’s account of air preserves the Stoic meaning of intentio.

Article · Poligrafi 28.111/112 · 2023 · open access“Intentio Spiritus: The Materialist, Pneumatological Origins of Intention in Augustine.”How Augustine transforms the material tension of breath into an activity of the immaterial soul.

Chapter · Philosophy of Breath: A Critical Anthology · Bloomsbury Academic · 2027“Res Intensa: Augustine, Descartes, and the Inclusive Exclusion of Breath.”Why the separation of mind and body in Descartes repeats an earlier move in Augustine.

Chapter · Handbook of Critical Respiratory Studies · Springer · online first, 5 March 2026“Poetry and Breath: The Role of Air in Modern European Poetry.”How Shelley and Verlaine use breath, wind, and air to rethink the relationship between spirit and the material world.

Section introduction · Handbook of Critical Respiratory Studies · Springer · online first, 25 June 2026Alberto Parisi and Kalpana Subramanian, “Introduction: Respiratory Thought and Practice in Literature and the Arts.”An introduction to breath in literature and the arts, co-written with Kalpana Subramanian.

Chapter · Somaesthetics of Atmosphere · Studies in Somaesthetics 11 · Brill · 2027“Stimmung, Nerves, and Atmosphere: Towards a Somaesthetic Understanding of Poetry.”How the history of nerves and atmosphere changes the way we understand poetry.

Article · Finzioni 4.8 · 2024 · open access · Italian“Il vento, la voce, il nichilismo: Giorgio Caproni e il dibattito filosofico italo-francese sulla voce.”Caproni’s poetry read alongside the Italian and French philosophical debate on voice.

Article · The Journal of Italian Philosophy 5 · 2022“From Voice to Pneuma and Back: Italian Pneumatologies Against Derrida’s Grammatology.”Italian responses to Derrida on the voice, and their return to breath.

Translation IT→EN, with an introduction · PMLA 137.3 · 2022Giorgio Agamben, “The ‘Dark Night’ of Juan de la Cruz”An English translation of Agamben’s essay on John of the Cross, with an introduction to its place in his early work.

Article · Monitor ISH XXVI · 2024“Negating Platonism: Reversing Platonism in Patočka and Deleuze.”How Patočka and Deleuze each challenge Platonism, despite taking different philosophical paths.

Introduction · Lenart Škof, Filosofia del respiro · Castelvecchi · 2025 · ItalianLenart Škof’s Philosophy of Breath, or the Marvelous Danger of Breathing“La filosofia del respiro di Lenart Škof, ovvero il meraviglioso pericolo del respiro.”An introduction to Lenart Škof’s philosophy of breath for its Italian edition.

Agamben and Coccia · literary and professional translationTranslationScholarly translations of Agamben and Coccia, alongside literary and professional translation.

Japanese and European poetic formKireji and CaesuraWhat happens when a poem cuts itself short?

Invited article · Contemporary and Applied Philosophy 17 · 2026“Kireji, Caesura, Atmosphere: A Preliminary Cross-Cultural and Philosophical Comparison”A comparison of Japanese cutting words and European caesuras through Nishitani and Agamben.

Lecture · Japanese Philosophy Network, University of Tokyo Center for Philosophy · 21 July 2026Philosophy of the Poetic 切れ字 (kireji): From Emptiness and kire-tsuzuki to AtmosphereA lecture on cutting words, breath, and atmosphere in Japanese poetry, through Nishitani and Ōhashi.

Conference paper · Aesthetics of qi/ki and Atmosphere. Steps towards East Asian Possibilities, Kobe University · 27 – 28 September 2025Haiku and Kireji: There Where Atmospheres AppearHow the exclamatory character of cutting words changes the way we understand atmosphere in haiku.

Invited talk · Society for Applied and Contemporary Philosophy 2025 Annual Symposium, Kobe University · 13 October 2025Caesura and Kireji: The Place of AtmospheresA philosophical comparison of the Japanese cutting word and the European caesura.

Invited lecture · Ciclo di Conferenze di Letteratura Giapponese, AllJapan, Università degli Studi di Firenze · 20 February 2026 · ITHaiku and Its ParadoxesL’haiku e i suoi paradossiA lecture on the history and paradoxes of haiku, from linked verse to Shiki’s reforms.

Invited lecture · Talking Sense series, Centre for Sensory Studies, Concordia University · 27 November 2025The Breath of Poetry: From Europe to JapanA lecture comparing breath and poetic form in European and Japanese traditions.

Conference paper · Elemental Pathways through Nature, ZRS Koper · 15 – 16 June 2026Cultivating Beauty: Sakura and the Metamorphosis of CultureA paper on cherry blossoms and cultivation, questioning the separation between nature and culture.

Research programme · Seal of Excellence, scored 95% at the MSCA · Kobe and Florence · 2025 —KI-reji: Kireji (切れ字) and Caesura as Atmospheric Markers — Towards an Intercultural and Ecocritical Understanding of PoetryA research project comparing cutting words and caesuras as ways poetry opens onto breath and atmosphere.

Voice, language, and philosophyThe VoiceWhat remains of the voice when philosophy treats language mainly as meaning?

Review-essay · MLN 133.5 · 2018Review-essay of Giorgio Agamben, What Is Philosophy?A review of Agamben’s account of philosophy, language, and the place where things appear.

Workshop paper · Aesthetics of Atmosphere, Force, Breath, Academia Sinica, Taipei · 30 September – 1 October 2024Voice as Atmosphere: The Pneumatological Place of Things in Contemporary Italian and Japanese PhilosophyA comparison of voice and atmosphere in contemporary Italian and Japanese philosophy.

Article · Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities · accepted for a special issue, subject to peer reviewVoice as Khôra: Agamben, Nishitani, and the Taking-Place of ThingsAn article on voice as the place where things come into language, through Agamben and Nishitani.

Philosophy, literature, and the artsAtmosphereHow does a place feel—and where does that feeling belong?

Conference paper · I Colóquio de Estudos Atmosféricos, Niterói · 24 – 25 March 2025Leo Spitzer Today: Towards a New Archaeology of Atmosphere (Stimmung and Ambiance)Reading Spitzer’s histories of Stimmung and ambiance together to recover their shared relationship to material air.

KOIAS Talk · Kobe University · 4 December 2024From Intention to Atmosphere: The Forgotten Respiratory and Atmospheric Roots of European CultureA lecture on the history connecting intention, breath, and atmosphere.

5th KOIAS–Shimadzu Lecture · Shimadzu Corporation, Kyoto · 10 September 2025From Harvard to Kobe University: The Value of Atmospheric Studies and the Humanities in the Contemporary WorldA talk for Shimadzu on Atmospheric Studies and the relationship between the humanities and the sciences.

Conference paper · Ecocriticisms in the 21st Century, University of Cappadocia · 20 – 22 May 2024The Value of Atmospheric and Respiratory Studies for Today’s Ecocriticism: Verlaine’s “Ariettes oubliées”A reading of Verlaine exploring what studies of breath and atmosphere contribute to ecocriticism.

Invited talk · Etica della letteratura, University of Florence · 17 December 2024Rimaterializzare la Stimmung: Nervi e atmosfera in Hugo von Hofmannsthal e Hermann BahrA lecture on nerves, the body, and atmosphere in Hermann Bahr and Hugo von Hofmannsthal.

Interview · Venti Journal 3.2, Cross-Cultural Atmospheres · 2026Interview with Emanuele Coccia on AtmosphereA conversation with Emanuele Coccia about atmosphere.

Conference paper · XXV World Congress of Philosophy, Rome · 1 – 8 August 2024“Negative Platonism: Reversing Platonism in Patočka and Deleuze.”A conference paper comparing Patočka’s negative Platonism with Deleuze’s reversal of Platonism.

Conference paper · Philosophy, Poetics, and Arts of Liminality, ZRS Koper · 17 – 19 June 2025“The Outside: The Liminality of the Subject from Bataille and Foucault to Nancy and Agamben.”A lecture on subjectivity and the outside, from Bataille and Foucault to Nancy and Agamben.

Review · Interdisciplinary Literary Studies 20.4 · 2018Review of Colby Dickinson, Words Fail: Theology, Poetry, and the Challenge of RepresentationA review of Colby Dickinson’s book on theology, poetry, and the limits of representation.

Review · Sofia Philosophical Review XVII.2 · 2024Review of Alessandra Aloisi, The Power of Distraction: Diversion and Reverie from Montaigne to ProustA review of Alessandra Aloisi’s history of distraction and its relationship to attention.

Symposium, co-organized with Lenart Škof · ZRS Koper · 17 – 19 June 2025Philosophy, Poetics, and Arts of Liminality: Interdisciplinary PerspectivesA symposium on liminality across philosophy, poetry, and the arts, co-organized with Lenart Škof.

Modern poetry and the material worldPoetry & BreathWhy is modern poetry so full of breath, wind, and air?

Subjectivity, language, and shared lifeThe OutsideWhat if the self is not something enclosed inside us?

Article · lay0ut magazine, volume 0 · 2022TikTok: From the Image to the Voice — Towards a Poetics of Social MediaTikTok: Dall’immagine alla voce – Per una poetica dei social mediaAn expanded Italian version of the Flash Art essay on TikTok, the voice, and a poetics of social media.

Invited speaker, panel · Firenze RiVista 2023 · September 2023Creare pecore elettriche: Il ruolo dell’intelligenza artificiale verso un nuovo approccio alla creativitàA panel contribution on artificial intelligence, creativity, and the possibilities of making art with machines.

Workshop convened at KOIAS, Kobe University · 28 January 2025“Vibe and Atmosphere on Social Media (SNS)”A workshop on the relationship between “vibe,” atmosphere, and social media.

Social media, television, and AINew Media StudiesWhat can poetry and philosophy help us understand about digital media?

Roundtable paper · Junior Network Roundtable, HIAS Hamburg · 8 February 2024Nicht Geist, sondern Atem: The Re-Materialization of the Spirit by Modern European PoetryA paper on how modern European poetry brings spirit back into contact with material breath.

Invited lecture · German Literature in Koper, ZRS Koper · 16 January 2024“Ein Hauch um nichts”: Breath and Wind in Modern German PoetryA lecture on breath and wind in German poetry, from Goethe to Celan.

Conference talk · Atmospheres of the Spiritual, Florida Atlantic University · 4 – 5 December 2025Poetry, Breath, and Atmosphere: The Case of Paul VerlaineA reading of Verlaine in which feeling emerges through the air, sounds, and movement of the poem.

Warwick · Harvard · European Commission · JSPS · 2017 — 2026Prizes and fundingResearch grants, fellowships, and awards from Japan, Europe, and the United States.

Research project · JSPS KAKENHI 25K22981 · Principal investigator · 2025 — 2026The Re-Materialization of the Spirit: An Atmospheric Ecocritical History of Modern European PoetryA JSPS-funded project on breath, spirit, and atmosphere in modern European poetry.