Lovisa Andén

I defended my PhD at Uppsala University/Södertörn University 2017. My thesis concerns literature, language and experience in the philosophy of Maurice Merleau-Ponty. In particular, I examine Merleau-Ponty’s reading of Marcel Proust, Paul Valéry and Stendhal in his unpublished course notes from Collège de France 1953-1954. I have transcribed, edited and annotated the course Sur le problème de la parole together with Franck Robert and Emmanuel de Saint Aubert (published at MetisPresses 2020).

2019-2020, I worked on a post-doctoral research project funded by Östersjöstiftelsen, on memoirs from the Gulag Archipelago written by western survivors. In particular, the project focuses on the question of truth with regard to literature and subjective experiences. Furthermore, it explores the interrelation between experience, literary expression and reality in the case of Gulag memoirs.

From 2022, I am working on the research project, Muted Memories and Silenced Stories: Memoirs by Women of the Gulag Archipelago, funded by the KONE foundation. The project examines questions of representation, truth and experience in witness literature written by women from the Gulag-Archipelago.