William Franke is a philosopher of the humanities, a Dante scholar, and a professor of comparative literature at Vanderbilt University. He has also been professor of philosophy at University of Macao (2013-2016); Fulbright-University of Salzburg Distinguished Chair in Intercultural Theology (2005-06); and Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung research fellow (1994-95). His book Dante’s Paradiso and the Theological Origins of Modern Thought: Toward a Speculative Philosophy of Self-Reflection (Routledge, 2021) received the Hermes Award: Book of the Year in Phenomenological Hermeneutics from The International Institute for Hermeneutics (IIH), and in 2021 he became Honorary Professor (Professor Honoris Causa) of the Agora Hermeneutica.
In addition to seven monographs on Dante, Franke’s critical theory books include Poetry and Apocalypse: Theological Disclosures of Poetic Language (Stanford University Press, 2009) and A Theology of Literature: The Bible as Revelation in the Tradition of the Humanities (Cascade, 2017). These works follow up on books tracing prophetic poetry from Homer and Virgil to Dante (The Revelation of Imagination, Northwestern University Press, 2015) and then forward from Dante through Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Blake, Leopardi, to more recent modern classics including Baudelaire, Dickinson, and Yeats (Secular Scriptures: Modern Theological Poetics in the Wake of Dante, Ohio State University Press, 2016).
In conjunction with his work on prophetic poetry, Franke has developed what he calls A Philosophy of the Unsayable (University of Notre Dame Press, 2014) reconstructing the apophatic tradition in On What Cannot Be Said (Notre Dame, 2007, 2 vols.). His Apophatic Paths from Europe to China (SUNY, 2018, Chinese Philosophy series) extends this project into an intercultural philosophy. His The Universality of What is Not: The Apophatic Turn in Critical Thinking (Notre Dame, 2020) explores applications of this philosophy to media studies, postmodern identity politics of race and gender, and cognitive sciences in their struggle with the humanities.
In addition to seven monographs on Dante, Franke’s critical theory books include Poetry and Apocalypse: Theological Disclosures of Poetic Language (Stanford University Press, 2009) and A Theology of Literature: The Bible as Revelation in the Tradition of the Humanities (Cascade, 2017). These works follow up on books tracing prophetic poetry from Homer and Virgil to Dante (The Revelation of Imagination, Northwestern University Press, 2015) and then forward from Dante through Chaucer, Shakespeare, Milton, Blake, Leopardi, to more recent modern classics including Baudelaire, Dickinson, and Yeats (Secular Scriptures: Modern Theological Poetics in the Wake of Dante, Ohio State University Press, 2016).
In conjunction with his work on prophetic poetry, Franke has developed what he calls A Philosophy of the Unsayable (University of Notre Dame Press, 2014) reconstructing the apophatic tradition in On What Cannot Be Said (Notre Dame, 2007, 2 vols.). His Apophatic Paths from Europe to China (SUNY, 2018, Chinese Philosophy series) extends this project into an intercultural philosophy. His The Universality of What is Not: The Apophatic Turn in Critical Thinking (Notre Dame, 2020) explores applications of this philosophy to media studies, postmodern identity politics of race and gender, and cognitive sciences in their struggle with the humanities.
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