Dr Dimitris Vardoulakis
- BA (University of Glasgow), PGD (Monash), MA (Monash), PhD (Monash)
- Learning Commons Coordinator
- Honorary Research Associate
- Contact details
- Full Curriculum Vitae
(PDF)
Background
After graduating from high school in Greece, Vardoulakis worked for two years as a professional journalist. He did his undergraduate degree in literature and philosophy at the University of Glasgow and moved to Monash University for his MA and PhD. From 2001 to 2006 he was the editor-in-chief of the journal Colloquy and he has published widely in the areas of literary studies, critical theory, and philosophy.
Research Interests
My research concentrates on two broadly defined areas. First, the relation between literature and philosophy; and, second, the relation between culture and the political.
I am presently completing a monograph on the Doppelgänger or Double, which represents the first area of research. The Doppelganger is a literary motif, but it was also coined as a word by the German author Jean Paul in order to critique Enlightenment and Idealist conceptions of the subject. Thus, the Doppelganger allows me to examine the way characters in works of literature are constructed, how philosophy in the past two centuries thinks of the subject, and how those two areas are interconnected.
My second area of research is part of my current writing project. An Alexander Humboldt Fellowship in 2007 gave me the opportunity to begin a book on political theology. That’s the idea that categories of politics and religion intersect and overlap. The central concept of my research is the Greek word stasis, which is linked both to the political (e.g. it is the root of the word ‘state’) and to the theological (e.g. in 4th century it defines the relation of the different parts the trinity).
My two interests are related in that they both are concerned with modernity. Modernity is understood both as the interdisciplinary approach to questions about culture and society; and, also, as the examination of politics in a ‘post-secular’ world – i.e. a world in which the paradigm of secularization is under threat. I hope to show these different aspects in a sequel to my work on stasis, a book on waiting. Waiting is a figure of considerable importance to a number of modernists, both in philosophy (Walter Benjamin and Martin Heidegger) and in literature (Chekhov, Cavafy, Beckett, Coetzee).
Selected Publications
Leslie Hill, Brian Nelson and Dimtris Vardoulakis (eds.), After Blanchot: Literature, Criticism, Philosophy (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2005).
Andrew Benjamin and Dimitris Vardoulakis (eds.), The Politics of Place, special issue of the journal Angelaki 9.2 (2004).
Alasdair Gray, Chamena Kormia, trans. Dimitris Vardoulakis (Athens: Nefeli, 2001). (Translation intro Greek of Gray’s novel Poor Things).
Peter Lyssiotis, The Bird, The Belltower/ Το πουλί, το καμπαναριό (bilingual edition), introduction and trans. Dimitris Vardoulakis (Melbourne: Owl Publishing, 2005).