Raphaël SIGAL | MaCI - Université Grenoble Alpes

Raphaël SIGAL

After studying comparative literature at Sorbonne-Nouvelle Paris 3, Raphaël Sigal obtained his Ph.D. in French literature at New York University. His dissertation was the basis of a book titled"Artaud, le sens de la lecture" (Hermann, 2018). He has been teaching for eight in Amherst College’s French department, where he is currently associate professor. His next book, titled "Tandis qu’elle oublie" will be published by Robert Laffont at the beginning of 2025.

Project at the MaCI

Galactopoetics: Milk and the Human Imagination

January 2024 - June 2024

Milk is at the heart of a dense network of relationships that weave together biology, anthropology and economics, and that find powerful echoes in literature, art, and philosophy. During his residency at the Université de Grenoble’s Maison de la Création et de l’Innovation, Raphaël will work on completing an essay provisionally entitled “Galactopoetics: Milk and the Human Imagination.”
In addition to closely reading works by Franz Kafka, Paul Celan, and Louis Wolfson, he will dig deeply into the scientific literature surrounding the advent of domestication; ancient cosmogonies; stories of human-animal breastfeeding; and artworks ranging from Johannes Vermeer to Marina Abramović. He will show that representations of milk are an essential site for observing how humans imagine their being and being-in-the-world.

Activities

16 May 2024 : Evening-talk GATES "Des insectes dans un bol de lait: Kafka et le néolithique"

Back to "Fellows 2024"

Funded by the French government's Programme d'Investissement Avenir and implemented by ANR France 2030