Dr Josh Robinson
(they/them)
- Available for postgraduate supervision
Teams and roles for Josh Robinson
Senior Lecturer
Overview
I work primarily on twentieth-century and contemporary poetry, and on the theoretical implications of the study of literature. I am particularly concerned with what close attention to innovative and experimental poetry can reveal about the categories that underpin the dominant narratives of modernism and modernity, and with the implications of the critique of political economy that considers the ways in which many of our concepts are saturated with frequently unseen implications of economic transactions and power relations.
Publication
2021
- Robinson, J. 2021. ‘Time simply laps / us up, like milk from a broken tumbler’: for Ian Patterson. In: A Small Thing on the Air: For and after Ian Patterson. Cardiff:, pp. 9-65.
- Robinson, J. 2021. Thirty-nine articles. In: Robinson, J. ed. A Small Thing on the Air: For and after Ian Patterson. Cardiff:, pp. 107-112.
- Robinson, J. ed. 2021. A small thing on the air: for and after Ian Patterson. Cardiff:
2018
- Robinson, J. 2018. The critique of value and the crisis of capitalist society. In: Best, B., Bonefeld, W. and O'Kane, C. eds. The SAGE Handbook of Frankfurt School Critical Theory., Vol. 2. London: Sage, pp. 783-798., (10.4135/9781526436122.n47)
- Robinson, J. 2018. The new REF: biased, unaccountable and unchallengeable. [Online]. CDBU Website: Council for the Defence of British Universities. Available at: http://cdbu.org.uk/the-new-ref-biased-unaccountable-and-unchallengeable/
- Robinson, J. 2018. Adorno's poetics of form. SUNY Series in Contemporary Continuental Philosophy. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
2017
- Robinson, J. 2017. Speculation upon speculation; or, a contribution to the critique of philosophical economy. In: Milesi, L., Müller, C. J. and Tynan, A. eds. Credo Credit Crisis: Speculations on Faith and Money. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 239-270.
2016
- Robinson, J. 2016. Poetics. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory 24(1), pp. 379-398. (10.1093/ywcct/mbw018)
2015
- Robinson, J. 2015. 12 poetics. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory 23(1), pp. 248-269. (10.1093/ywcct/mbv011)
2014
- Pendakis, A., Diamanti, J., Brown, N., Robinson, J. and Szeman, I. Pendakis, A. et al. eds. 2014. Contemporary Marxist theory: a reader. London: Bloomsbury.
- Larsen, N. et al. eds. 2014. Mediations 27:1-2 Dossier: Marxism and the critique of value.Larsen, N., Nilges, M., Robinson, J. and Brown, N. Marxist Literary Group.
- Larsen, N. et al. eds. 2014. Marxism and the critique of value.Larsen, N., Nilges, M., Robinson, J. and Brown, N. Chicago and Alberta: MCM.
- Kurz, R. and Robinson, J. 2014. The crisis of exchange value: Science as productive force; productive labor; and capitalist reproduction. Mediations 27(1-2)
- Lohoff, E., Larsen, N. and Robinson, J. 2014. Off limits, out of control: Commodity society and resistance in the age of deregulation and denationalization. Mediations 27(1-2)
- Robinson, J. 2014. 7 Poetics. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory 22(1), pp. 131-154. (10.1093/ywcct/mbu007)
- Robinson, J. 2014. Riches beyond value. Mediations 27(1-2)
2013
- Robinson, J. 2013. Miguel de Beistegui, Aesthetics after metaphysics: from mimesis to metaphor [Book Review]. Radical Philosophy 179, pp. 49-51.
- Trenkle, N. and Robinson, J. 2013. The rise and fall of the working man: Toward a critique of modern masculinity. Mediations 27(1-2)
- Ortlieb, C. P. and Robinson, J. 2013. A contradiction between matter and form: on the significance of the production of relative surplus value in the dynamic of terminal crisis. Mediations 27(1-2), article number: 3.
- Trenkle, N. and Robinson, J. 2013. Value and crisis: basic questions. Mediations 27(1-2), article number: 1.
2012
- Robinson, J. 2012. Norbert Trenkle and Ernst Lohoff Die Große Entwertung: Warum Spekulation und Staatsverschuldung nicht die Ursache der Krise sind [Book Review]. Marx and Philosophy Review of Books 2012, article number: Robinson: Die Große Entwertung.
- Robinson, J. 2012. Aesthetic theory, aesthetic praxis: the poetics of activism. The New Everyday: A Media Commons Project 2012(Jan)
2010
- Robinson, J. 2010. 'Through open limits': the early poetry of J. H. Prynne. Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry 2(1), pp. 61-76.
- Robinson, J. 2010. Roger Foster, Adorno: The recovery of experience [Book Review]. Critical Horizons 11(1), pp. 156-159. (10.1558/crit.v11i1.156)
- Robinson, J. 2010. Aesthetic praxis. Studies in Social and Political Thought 17, pp. 44-52.
- Robinson, J. 2010. 'A gasp of laughter at desire': Frank O'Hara's poetics of breath. In: Hampson, R. and Montgomery, W. eds. Frank O'Hara Now: New Essays on the New York Poet. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 144-159.
2009
- Robinson, J. 2009. Language and history in Theodor W. Adorno's "Notes to Literature" [Book Review]. British Journal of Aesthetics 49(2), pp. 194-196. (10.1093/aesthj/ayp011)
- Trenkle, N. and Robinson, J. 2009. Tremors on the global market. Krisis: Kritik der Warengesellschaft 2009(24 Mar)
- Robinson, J. 2009. Dialektik und Spekulation. Über die Grenzen der spekulativen Vernunft. In: Muller, S. ed. Probleme der Dialektik heute. Springer, pp. 229-246., (10.1007/978-3-531-91880-8_10)
2008
- Robinson, J. 2008. Alastair Morgan, Adorno’s Concept of life [Book Review]. Radical Philosophy 152, pp. 64-65.
- Robinson, J. 2008. Poetry and class politics. Quid 19, pp. 52-53.
2007
- Robinson, J. 2007. 'innocence and incapability impose': towards an ethic of experimentation. Jacket 32, article number: p-robinson.
- Robinson, J. 2007. W.S. Graham and the poetics of loss. In: Kennedy, D. ed. Necessary Steps: Poetry, Elegy, Walking, Spirit. Devoran: Shearsman, pp. 132-139.
- Robinson, J. 2007. 'Abject self on patrol': immaterial labour, affect, and subjectivity in Andrea Brady's Cold Calling. In: Purves, R. and Ladkin, S. eds. Complicities: British Poetry 1945-2007. Purves, R. and Ladkin, S. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, pp. 253-270.
2006
- Robinson, J. 2006. Walking in history. Quid 17, pp. 6-7.
2005
- Robinson, J. 2005. Shift report. Cambridge: Arehouse.
- Robinson, J. 2005. The visual poetic of Frank O'Hara. Quid 16, pp. 20-28.
0
- Trenkle, N. and Robinson, J. . Struggle without classes: Why there is no resurgence of the proletariat in the currently unfolding capitalist crisis (2006). Mediations 27(1-2)
- Larsen, N. and Robinson, J. . Editors' note. Mediations 27(1-2)
Articles
- Robinson, J. 2016. Poetics. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory 24(1), pp. 379-398. (10.1093/ywcct/mbw018)
- Robinson, J. 2015. 12 poetics. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory 23(1), pp. 248-269. (10.1093/ywcct/mbv011)
- Kurz, R. and Robinson, J. 2014. The crisis of exchange value: Science as productive force; productive labor; and capitalist reproduction. Mediations 27(1-2)
- Lohoff, E., Larsen, N. and Robinson, J. 2014. Off limits, out of control: Commodity society and resistance in the age of deregulation and denationalization. Mediations 27(1-2)
- Robinson, J. 2014. 7 Poetics. The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory 22(1), pp. 131-154. (10.1093/ywcct/mbu007)
- Robinson, J. 2014. Riches beyond value. Mediations 27(1-2)
- Robinson, J. 2013. Miguel de Beistegui, Aesthetics after metaphysics: from mimesis to metaphor [Book Review]. Radical Philosophy 179, pp. 49-51.
- Trenkle, N. and Robinson, J. 2013. The rise and fall of the working man: Toward a critique of modern masculinity. Mediations 27(1-2)
- Ortlieb, C. P. and Robinson, J. 2013. A contradiction between matter and form: on the significance of the production of relative surplus value in the dynamic of terminal crisis. Mediations 27(1-2), article number: 3.
- Trenkle, N. and Robinson, J. 2013. Value and crisis: basic questions. Mediations 27(1-2), article number: 1.
- Robinson, J. 2012. Norbert Trenkle and Ernst Lohoff Die Große Entwertung: Warum Spekulation und Staatsverschuldung nicht die Ursache der Krise sind [Book Review]. Marx and Philosophy Review of Books 2012, article number: Robinson: Die Große Entwertung.
- Robinson, J. 2012. Aesthetic theory, aesthetic praxis: the poetics of activism. The New Everyday: A Media Commons Project 2012(Jan)
- Robinson, J. 2010. 'Through open limits': the early poetry of J. H. Prynne. Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry 2(1), pp. 61-76.
- Robinson, J. 2010. Roger Foster, Adorno: The recovery of experience [Book Review]. Critical Horizons 11(1), pp. 156-159. (10.1558/crit.v11i1.156)
- Robinson, J. 2010. Aesthetic praxis. Studies in Social and Political Thought 17, pp. 44-52.
- Robinson, J. 2009. Language and history in Theodor W. Adorno's "Notes to Literature" [Book Review]. British Journal of Aesthetics 49(2), pp. 194-196. (10.1093/aesthj/ayp011)
- Trenkle, N. and Robinson, J. 2009. Tremors on the global market. Krisis: Kritik der Warengesellschaft 2009(24 Mar)
- Robinson, J. 2008. Alastair Morgan, Adorno’s Concept of life [Book Review]. Radical Philosophy 152, pp. 64-65.
- Robinson, J. 2008. Poetry and class politics. Quid 19, pp. 52-53.
- Robinson, J. 2007. 'innocence and incapability impose': towards an ethic of experimentation. Jacket 32, article number: p-robinson.
- Robinson, J. 2006. Walking in history. Quid 17, pp. 6-7.
- Robinson, J. 2005. The visual poetic of Frank O'Hara. Quid 16, pp. 20-28.
- Trenkle, N. and Robinson, J. . Struggle without classes: Why there is no resurgence of the proletariat in the currently unfolding capitalist crisis (2006). Mediations 27(1-2)
- Larsen, N. and Robinson, J. . Editors' note. Mediations 27(1-2)
Book sections
- Robinson, J. 2021. ‘Time simply laps / us up, like milk from a broken tumbler’: for Ian Patterson. In: A Small Thing on the Air: For and after Ian Patterson. Cardiff:, pp. 9-65.
- Robinson, J. 2021. Thirty-nine articles. In: Robinson, J. ed. A Small Thing on the Air: For and after Ian Patterson. Cardiff:, pp. 107-112.
- Robinson, J. 2018. The critique of value and the crisis of capitalist society. In: Best, B., Bonefeld, W. and O'Kane, C. eds. The SAGE Handbook of Frankfurt School Critical Theory., Vol. 2. London: Sage, pp. 783-798., (10.4135/9781526436122.n47)
- Robinson, J. 2017. Speculation upon speculation; or, a contribution to the critique of philosophical economy. In: Milesi, L., Müller, C. J. and Tynan, A. eds. Credo Credit Crisis: Speculations on Faith and Money. Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, pp. 239-270.
- Robinson, J. 2010. 'A gasp of laughter at desire': Frank O'Hara's poetics of breath. In: Hampson, R. and Montgomery, W. eds. Frank O'Hara Now: New Essays on the New York Poet. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, pp. 144-159.
- Robinson, J. 2009. Dialektik und Spekulation. Über die Grenzen der spekulativen Vernunft. In: Muller, S. ed. Probleme der Dialektik heute. Springer, pp. 229-246., (10.1007/978-3-531-91880-8_10)
- Robinson, J. 2007. W.S. Graham and the poetics of loss. In: Kennedy, D. ed. Necessary Steps: Poetry, Elegy, Walking, Spirit. Devoran: Shearsman, pp. 132-139.
- Robinson, J. 2007. 'Abject self on patrol': immaterial labour, affect, and subjectivity in Andrea Brady's Cold Calling. In: Purves, R. and Ladkin, S. eds. Complicities: British Poetry 1945-2007. Purves, R. and Ladkin, S. Prague: Litteraria Pragensia, pp. 253-270.
Books
- Robinson, J. ed. 2021. A small thing on the air: for and after Ian Patterson. Cardiff:
- Robinson, J. 2018. Adorno's poetics of form. SUNY Series in Contemporary Continuental Philosophy. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
- Pendakis, A., Diamanti, J., Brown, N., Robinson, J. and Szeman, I. Pendakis, A. et al. eds. 2014. Contemporary Marxist theory: a reader. London: Bloomsbury.
- Larsen, N. et al. eds. 2014. Mediations 27:1-2 Dossier: Marxism and the critique of value.Larsen, N., Nilges, M., Robinson, J. and Brown, N. Marxist Literary Group.
- Larsen, N. et al. eds. 2014. Marxism and the critique of value.Larsen, N., Nilges, M., Robinson, J. and Brown, N. Chicago and Alberta: MCM.
- Robinson, J. 2005. Shift report. Cambridge: Arehouse.
Websites
- Robinson, J. 2018. The new REF: biased, unaccountable and unchallengeable. [Online]. CDBU Website: Council for the Defence of British Universities. Available at: http://cdbu.org.uk/the-new-ref-biased-unaccountable-and-unchallengeable/
Research
My main current project is a monograph, The Poetics of Late Modernism, which addresses the late twentieth- and twenty-first-century poetic legacies of high modernism.
From 2014 I am also writing the 'Poetics' article of The Year's Work in Critical and Cultural Theory (covering work published from 2012).
Research interests
- Adorno
- literary and aesthetic form
- English-language and comparative poetics (particularly in modernist and contemporary literature)
- conceptuality, conceptual archaeologies and networks
- the experimental lyric
- negative dialectic
- Marx and critical Marxism
- value and the commodity-form
- the rhetoric of antisemitism
- philosophical aesthetics
- relationships between philosophical and literary modernism
I welcome applications from potential PhD students whose plans overlap with any of my listed interests. Informal enquiries are always welcome.
Biography
I came to Cardiff as a Lecturer in 2013, prior to which I was a Research Fellow at Queens' College, Cambridge. I completed my graduate studies at the Faculty of English in the University of Cambridge, during which I also spent time as a visiting Research Fellow at the Szondi Institute for General and Comparative Literature at the Freie Universität Berlin.
Honours and awards
2008– Affiliated Professor, University of Haifa, Israel
Professional memberships
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
Active memberships include: American Comparative Literature Association; British Comparative Literature Association; British Association for Contemporary Literary Studies; Marxist Literary Group; University and College Union
Academic positions
- 2011–13: Research Fellow, Queens' College, Cambridge
- 2007–11: Visiting Researcher, Szondi Institute for General and Comparative Literature, Freie Universität Berlin
Committees and reviewing
- Referee for Columbia UP, Cambridge UP, Edinbugh UP, SUNY Press, Bloomsbury Academic
- Referee for journals including British Journal of Aesthetics, British Journal for the History of Philosophy, Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Journal of British and Irish Innovative Poetry
- 2025–: Reviewer, Polish National Science Centre
- 2022–: Secretary, British Comparative Literature Association (Committee Member since 2019)
- 2017–: Outer International Assessment Board, Government of Ireland Postdoctoral Fellowship Scheme
- 2016–: Peer Review College, Arts and Humanities Research Council
- 2015–: International Editorial Board, Intersectional Perspectives (formerly Assuming Gender)
- 2014–: Reviewer, DAAD (German Academic Exchange Service)
- 2013–: Editorial board, Theory, Culture, Politics (Rowman and Littlefield)
- 2016–22: Member of University Senate
Supervisions
I am interested in supervising doctoral and postdoctoral projects in the following areas:
- Adorno
- literary and aesthetic form
- English-language and comparative poetics (particularly in modernist and contemporary literature)
- conceptuality, conceptual archaeologies and networks
- The Experimental Lyric
- comparative literature
- negative dialectic
- Marx and critical Marxism
- value and the commodity-form
- Antisemitism
- Philosophical Aesthetics
- relationships between philosophical and literary modernism
Current supervision
Tom Davies
Past projects
- ‘One-Dimensional Trans: Models, Surrogates, Rapporteurs’
- ‘Duplicitous Desire: John Dewey and the Potential of Poetry’
- ‘Pink Light and Iron: Epistemo-Critical Writing in Walter Benjamin and Philip K. Dick’
- ‘An Aesthetic Relational Worldview: A Study in the Process Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead’
- ‘The Weird History of USAmerican Fascism: A Guide (1979-2019)’
- ‘On the Nature of Poetic Address in Blanchot, Celan and Cixous’
- ‘The Highs and Lows of Modernism: A Cultural Deconstruction’
- ‘Roland Barthes and English-language avant-garde poetry, 1970-1987’
Contact Details
RobinsonJ17@cardiff.ac.uk
+44 29208 76740
John Percival Building, Room 1.22, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU
+44 29208 76740
John Percival Building, Room 1.22, Colum Drive, Cardiff, CF10 3EU