Jeroen Gerrits

Having received an MA in Philosophy from the University of Amsterdam (2004) and a PhD in Comparative literature from the JHU’s Humanities Center (2011), Jeroen Gerrits is currently Associate Professor and Chair of Comparative Literature at Binghamton University (SUNY). He is the author of Cinematic Skepticism: Across Digital and Global Turns (SUNY Press, 2019). A book on TV-series entitled Series of Time: An Uncanny Ordinary in New TV is under contract with Exeter Press for its TV-Philosophy series. Gerrits is also editing a volume on The World Viewed, Stanley Cavell’s seminal work in film-philosophy, which is under advanced contract with Anthem. Publications further include numerous articles and book chapters on Film- and TV-Philosophy, as well as on specific French and American TV-series.

The project

Title: Series of Time: An Uncanny Ordinary in New Television

"Series of Time is a book project in which I argue that the protagonists of 21^st century TV series live split or double lives at the interface of hardly commensurable diegetic worlds. Their simultaneous desire for and avoidance of (a return to) the ordinary triggers a series’ ongoing negotiations between paradoxical ideas of simultaneity and succession, repetition and difference, ending and returning. The book adapts a Cavello-Deleuzian film-philosophical framework (which I developped in a previous book, entitled Cinematic Skepticism) for the context of French and American TV-series. The DEA award enables me to conduct research for this project in audio-visual and university libraries in Paris. It also provides the opportunity to discuss this work-in-progress with professional TV critics and theorists in France through a series of seminars, workshops, and conferences co-organized with my host at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, Prof. Sandra Laugier.

Hosting institution: Centre des Savoirs sur le Politique - Recherches et Analyses (CESPRA), campus Condorcet, à Aubervilliers

Selective Bibliography

• “Entitled to a Normal Life: Skepticism and the Ordinary in Le Bureau des légendes” in: Le Bureau des légendes (VRIN editions), ed. Thibaut de Saint Maurice (peer-reviewed book chapter, forthcoming).
• “‘Normal Is What We Make It, Right?’ Ordinary Aesthetics and Uncanny Twists in Contemporary TV Series." Open Philosophy, vol. 6, no. 1, 2023, pp. 20220257 (peer reviewed article)
• “Im/Moral Perfectionism: On TV’s Two Worlds.” in: Television with Stanley Cavell in Mind, Ed. David LaRocca & Sandra Laugier. University of Exeter Press, 2023. (peer-reviewed book chapter)
• “From Episodic Novel to Serial TV: The Handmaid’s Tale, Adaptation and Politics.” Open Philosophy Vol 5:1, January 2022. (peer reviewed article)
• “Conflicting Modes of Moral Reasoning: The Case of 24.” In: Sylvie Allouche (éd.), 24 heures chrono, naissance du genre sécuritaire ? Archive ouverte J. Vrin, 2021.