Mr Thomas Payre

(he/him)

PhD student

Research

My research consists in an analysis of the close relationship between literary modes of expression and phenomenological method in four authors’ works: Marcel Proust, Jean-Paul Sartre, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Frantz Fanon. The overarching aim is to argue for the importance of a way of doing phenomenology the practitioners of which I will call ‘literary-phenomenologists’. In the case of each author, I will document the problems they either detail or implicitly reveal in traditionally philosophical descriptive methods, and the specific way in which they embody this alternative distinctive way of doing phenomenology, as ‘literary-phenomenologists’. I am also interested to see the way this distinctive way of doing phenomenology affects concrete analyses of specific phenomena (e.g., the temporal flow of experiences, the specific character of certain kinds of recollective experiences). Finally, I will determine whether this supposed switch to ‘literary-phenomenology’ marks out a methodological turning point in phenomenology, or whether versions of this idea can be found in nascent form in classical phenomenologists such as Husserl and Heidegger. 

Thesis

Literary-phenomenologists. Does literary writing and style reveal a new descriptive method in Phenomenology?

Teaching

• 2022 Autumn semester: Seminar Tutor of the 'Moral & Political Philosophy' module.
• 2023 Spring semester: Seminar Tutor of the 'Mind, Thought & Reality' module.
• 2024 Academic year: Writing Development Support Tutor.

Biography

Professional memberships

 

• Society for Phenomenology and Media.
• Society for Meaning in Life.
• Society for European Philosophy.
• UK Sartrean Society.

 

Speaking engagements

Academic Presentations

2024: ‘The Existentialist Scène de Ménage: Sartre and Beauvoir on Free Couple.’ UK Sartre Society Conference 2024. Maison française d’Oxford. Oxford. United Kingdom. July.

2024: ‘”The painting is not the illustration of a ready-made thought, but the appropriation of that very thought” or the Arnalian Reading of Merleau-Ponty.’ 2024 Society for European Philosophy Conference. Cardiff University. Cardiff. United Kingdom. July.

2024: ‘Vers une “littérophobie”: Diagnostic de la création littéraire étudiante pendant le Confinement.’ Bien Vivre en Milieu Éducatif. INSPE & CY Cergy Paris Université. Cergy-Pontoise. France. June. (in French)

2024: ‘A Sartrean Exploration of Meaningfulness in Mindless Actions.’ 6^th International Conference on Philosophy and Meaning in Life. University of Liverpool. Liverpool. United Kingdom. June.

2024: ‘A New Approach to Phenomenological Literature: Phenomenology of Literature, Literary Phenomenology and Literary-Phenomenology.’ ENCAPsulate 2024 Conference. Cardiff University. Cardiff. United Kingdom. June.

2024: ‘Christian Dior’s “Women in White.” The New Phenomenology of the Look in The Phantom Baron and A Kiss for a Killer.’ Haunting(s): Multidisciplinary Approaches. Cardiff University. Cardiff. Royaume-Uni. June.

2024: ‘Exploring the Phenomenology of Memes: Understanding the Dialectic Between Image and Text.’ Philosophy of Memes Conference. University of Bucharest. Bucharest. Romania. March.

2023: ‘The false discovery of phenomenology, or the literary intuition of Sartre and Merleau-Ponty.’ Southwest Phenomenologists Workshop. University of Bristol. Bristol. United Kingdom. July.

2023: ‘The ‘Talent of the Glassmaker’ in Marcel Proust and the Problem of Phenomenological Language.’ ENCAPsulate 2023 Conference. Cardiff University. Cardiff. United Kingdom. June.

2023: ‘Écrire en phénoménologue, décrire la ville : de la vision artistique à la vision phénoménologique.’ Vision(s) de l’art. Université de Rouen Normandie. Rouen. France. May. (in French)

2022: ‘Le ‘‘talent du verrier’’ chez Marcel Proust face au problème du langage phénoménologique.’ Penser le verre : la création au tournant de la transparence. Université Paris VIII. Paris. France. December. (in French)

2021: ‘La conception sartrienne de la douleur face à la philosophie cognitive de Murat Aydede.’ Tradition phénoménologique et philosophie cognitive contemporaine. École Normale Supérieure de Lyon. Lyon. France. June. (in French)

2019: ‘Sartre, une philosophie de la liberté.’ Société Alpine de Philosophie (SAP). Grenoble. France. May. (in French)

 

Invited Public Talks

2021: ‘Qu’est-ce qu’un roman lyonnais ?’ Les Plumes du Lyon. EM Lyon Business School. Lyon. November.

Committees and reviewing

• Society for European Philosophy: Executive Committee.
• UK Sartrean Society: Executive Committee.

Supervisors