October 2009




The Mad Scientist in 19th to 21st Century Fiction
Brest, France  -  1-2 Oct 2009
Deadline for papers: 15 March 2009

The mad scientist is a complex figure which dates back to Antiquity, a time when genius and madness were perceived as complementary facets. This complementarity persists, fuelled by successive epistemological crises which question the perception human beings have of themselves and of the world around them. The figure of the mad scientist crystallizes many diffuse fears which can be political, social, religious, economic or ideological and which are related to the possibility of defining oneself as a human being (Hawthorne, Collins, Doyle, Stevenson, Stoker, Machen, Wells).
This symposium will focus on contemporary metamorphoses of the mad scientist in narratives and visual arts of the late 20th century and early 21st centuries, in the English-speaking world (A. Carter, J. Coe, P. Mc Grath, M. Amis, W. Self) but not exclusively so. Visual arts will enable us to reach beyond geographical or temporal frontiers as the mad scientist‚s popularity is highly indebted to the cinema.
Proposals may deal with various socio-cultural contexts and emphasize ontological, epistemological, psychological, economic or political aspects which have contributed to the persistence and aura of the figure of the mad scientist.
Abstracts should be sent before the 15th of March 2009 to:
<helene.machinal@univ-brest.fr> or <camille.manfredi@univ-brest.fr>.
(posted 14 Jul '08)



The Metareferential Turn in Contemporary Arts and Media: Forms, Functions, and Attempts at Explanation
Karl-Franzens-Universität Graz, Austria  -  1-3 October 2009
Deadline for proposals: 16 February 2009

The aim of the symposium is to elucidate the current 'metareferential turn' in the arts and media (high 'meta-art' as well as 'meta-pop') from both a functional and a cultural-historical perspective.
Issues to be considered are: 
• collecting and interpreting relevant cases of metareference in contemporary arts and media, especially where this has not been done so far to a sufficient degree;
• exploring major functions and effects of metaization in contemporary arts and media;
• embedding the current metareferential turn in the general cultural-historical development of 'metaization', and finding possible reasons for its appearance.
Papers (in English) dealing with any of these topics are welcome, especially when they go beyond a discussion of 'metafiction'; yet all papers ought to address the functions of metaization in our world and/or the question of how to explain the current metareferential turn. Length of papers: 30 minutes. For detailed information on 'metareference' and a preceding conference on this subject consult: http://www.uni-graz.at/angwww/angwww_congress.htm.
Please send abstracts of 300 to 500 words with short CV including an indication of academic affiliation to <metareference@uni-graz.at>.
(posted 16 Sep '08)



British Aestheticisms : Sources, Genres, Definitions, Evolutions
Université Paul Valéry, Montpellier, France  -  2-3 October 2009
Deadline for proposals: 1 December 2008

Both a social phenomenon, an artistic movement and a literary trend, British Aestheticism has been the object of multiple, sometimes contradictory, definitions which all point to its central role in the advent of modernity. As a movement and as an operative notion Aestheticism is of major importance to anybody interested in nineteenth and early twentieth century British culture.
This international conference on British Aestheticisms : Sources, Genres, Definitions, Evolutions, which will take place in October 2009, aims at reexamining the notion of Aestheticism from a transdisciplinary perspective and hopes to attract contributions (in French or in English) from researchers across the fields of British studies, comparative studies, art history, publishing history, aesthetics, philosophy, reception theory, women‚s studies, queer theory, and gay and lesbian studies.
Papers may focus on the definition and the boundaries of Aestheticism, its relationship with tradition, and its links with contemporary or subsequent movements (European Decadence, Modernism, etc.); we also encourage contributions on the generic definition of Aestheticism, its editorial policies or its circulation and popularization via other media (visual arts, theatre, music-hall) in mainstream culture as well as in various alternative communities, in the general context of the explosion of the means of communication and mechanic reproduction, or what L. Dowling calls artistic "vulgarisation". What authors were/are considered aesthetic? Who read Aesthetic writings (both fiction and non-fiction), bought or saw Aesthetic products, or attended Aesthetic performances? Furthermore, as Aestheticism is concomitant with a re-envisaging of gender and identities, contributors may want to explore the links between Aestheticism and Victorian feminism and with the 'third sex'. Finally, one may want to examine the philosophical underpinnings of a movement based on Kantian philosophy which aimed at challenging oppositions between aesthetics and ethics: is Aestheticism a subversion, a redefinition, or a suspension of the oppositions between aesthetics and ethics?
This conference is organised by the CERVEC Research Center (Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Victoriennes, Edouardiennes et Contemporaines, EA 741) of the Université Paul Valéry Montpellier, France. Selected papers will be published. Please send a 300-word abstract before December 1st, 2008 to <catherine.delyfer@univ-montp3.fr> AND <bncoste@free.fr>.
Conference website: http://www.esthetismes.org/
(posted 9 Jun '08)



Moving World(s): Changes and Innovations in Late Medieval and Early Renaissance Europe
University of Limoges, France  -  9-10 October 2009
Deadline for proposals: 15 October 2008 (closed)

An international interdisciplinary conference organized by EHIC at the University of Limoges, France.
The habit of dividing Time into centuries has often raised controversy due to its arbitrariness and imprecision. Rather than focus exclusively on the topic of disruption - entailing radical and exclusive positions - we have chosen to highlight the notion of continuity: what forms do the changes take at the end of the Middle Ages and at the beginning of the Renaissance, questioning the fixity of systems and more particularly the world picture and the schema of a central, immobile Earth?
Through historical documents, literary texts or works of art, this conference means to explore the expression of changes in various fields of studies so as to bring together scholars from apparently separate disciplines.
Suggested topics:
· work, economy and daily life: their concrete aspects and their specific vocable
· mobility, the representation and perception of space and territories
· technical innovations in the fields of art, architecture, literature
· Man facing changes and his relation to Time
· participation in public life; exploration of the intimate space as a form of "geographical meditation" (Jean-Marc Besse, Les Grandeurs de la Terre. Aspects du savoir géographique à la Renaissance, Lyon, ENS Éditions, 203, p. 309)
You are invited to submit a proposal for a 30-minute paper (in French or in English).
Deadline for proposals: 15 October 2008
Please contact:
Martine Yvernault : <martine.yvernault@unilim.fr>
Muriel Cunin: <muriel.cunin1@libertysurf.fr>
(posted 10 Jul '08)



Darwin, Tennyson and Their Readers:  A Bicentenary Celebration, 1809 - 2009
Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, UK  -  17 October 2009
Deadline for proposals: 1 October 2008 (closed)

Confirmed Keynote Speakers: Professor Dame Gillian Beer, Clare Hall College, Cambridge; Professor George Levine, Emeritus Professor, Rutgers University, U.S.A.
2009 will mark the bicentenary of the births of both Alfred Tennyson and Charles Darwin. Our one-day conference will celebrate this event by exploring the interaction of literature and science in the Victorian period, mining the rich vein of research opened up by Professor Dame Gillian Beer in Darwin's Plots (1983) and continued by Professor George Levine in Darwin and the Novelists (1988). Professors Beer and Levine will both be presenting plenary papers at the conference, outlining their latest thinking and building on the central insight that 'the cultural traffic ran both ways.'
Short Papers are therefore invited, exploring the links, not only between Tennyson and Darwin, but more generally between the writings of nineteenth century scientists and of nineteenth century poets or novelists - evidence that they were reading each other. A paper on Thomas Huxley's reading of Tennyson would be especially welcomed. Some more obvious subjects might be: George Eliot or John Ruskin's reading of Darwin; Darwin and Myth; Darwin reading Dickens; 'Optimistic Materialism' in the light of George Levine's latest book, Darwin Loves You (2007); 'Condition of England Novels and Evolutionary Theory: Kingsley, Disraeli and Darwin; 'Tennyson and Browning: two responses to evolutionary debates'; Lewis Carroll reads Tennyson and Darwin; 'Growing Younger With the Years:  the Reputations of Tennyson and Darwin reconsidered'; or 'A Passion for Fabulation:  Darwin, Tennyson and Autobiography'.
Proposals for Papers, including a 300-word summary, should be sent by 1st October 2008 to:
Dr Valerie Purton, Department of English, Anglia Ruskin University, East Road, Cambridge CB1 1PT, U.K.
<Valerie.Purton@anglia.ac.uk>.
Tel: 0845-196-2496.
(posted 6 May '08)



Lincoln Bicentennial Conference: European Readings of Abraham Lincoln, his Times and Legacy
Université Versailles-St-Quentin, France  -  17-18 October 2009
Deadline for proposals: 31 January 2009

Under the auspices of Laboratoire Suds d'Amériques (Université Versailles-St-Quentin), Observatoire de la Politique Américaine (OPA / CRAN, Université Sorbonne Nouvelle-Paris 3), ReDEHJA (Réseau pour le développement européen de l'histoire de la jeune Amérique), The American University of Paris.
On the occasion of Abraham Lincoln's 200th birthday we invite fresh interpretations of the man, the politician in his times (from the antebellum period though the Civil War) as well as his legacy beyond the Civil War through today, from a European perspective. This shall be the first conference of this kind to be held in France.
Beyond the historical background of 1809-1865 which, like Lincoln himself, "was big enough to be inconsistent" (W. E. B. Du Bois) and brought about fundamental changes in the United States as a nation, we invite analysis of the nature of the man himself–along with his policies, enemies, idolaters and critics–as an American politician and leader. We also seek to examine the complements and contrasts which relate Europe to the United States - and the USA to Europe - as revealed by European readings of Abraham Lincoln and his era, before, throughout, and after the Civil War.
We invite contributors to harvest this terrain from the fields of History, Literature, the Political & Social Sciences, Popular Culture and Mass Media, by focusing in particular on the European perspective–then and now–regarding American events and achievements when the very meaning of democracy and the nation was at stake, not just for the United States but for "the whole family of man" (Lincoln, July 1861). How have the individual prisms of Europeans‚ own History, Literature and Media understood and made use of Lincoln and the US antebellum and Civil War epoch? To what extent has informed awareness by both Europeans and Americans been a litmus test of Euro-American understanding?
Paper proposals (300 words, in English) should be sent by December 31, 2008 together with a brief (one-page) resume both to Naomi Wulf <naomi.wulf@wanadoo.fr> and John Dean <jdeureka@yahoo.com>.
Applicants will be notified about their proposals by 31 January, 2009.
Steering committee: John Dean, Jacques Pothier, Bernard Vincent, Naomi Wulf.
(posted 24 Jun '08)



Text and Context: Literature and History  of Medieval England
Université de Paris Est Marne-la-Vallée, France  -  23-24 October 2009
Deadline for proposals: 15 November 2008
(closed)

Economic, political and social historians have often used to great advantage the information gleaned from narrative and literary sources in order to understand better the structures and events of the medieval period. Scholars of medieval literature study the historical context of authors to analyze their texts.  Writers and cinematographers have combined historical data and imagination to render more or less accurate portraits of people and events in the Middle Ages.  It is impossible to separate completely the real from the imagined in medieval history and literature.  Medieval authors of literary texts and poems most often included fictionalized accounts of events that occurred around them.  Very few medieval sources can even be considered void of imagination, from the events recounted by plaintiffs, witnesses and defendants in court records, to the more or less fictional rendering of accounts by manor reeves, to the exaggerated tales of chroniclers and authorities in preambles to legislation. It is quite unlikely that historical actors even saw a line between fact and fiction, let alone attempt to draw one in their discourse. Scholars of the medieval period are constantly confronted with the difficult task of delineating what was real and what was imagined.
Papers for this conference should address questions related to the confluence of imagination and fact in medieval literature and history. Proposals on Anglo-Saxon and medieval England (5th to 15th centuries), both from graduate students and confirmed researchers, are welcome. The organisers are seeking to attract scholars specialized in different fields (political, social, cultural and economic history, literature, etc.) to speak on a broad array of topics (including attempts to turn historical events into fiction for modern audiences). Papers should be roughly 30-minutes long, and they will be arranged into panel sessions on related topics by the conference organisers. A half hour will be reserved for discussion on the papers after each panel.
Please send abstracts of 200 to 300 words to : <robert_braid@yahoo.fr>.
(posted 19 Jul '08)


  

November 2009




Imagining Amsterdam: Visions and Revisions
Amsterdam, Netherlands  -  19-21 November 2009
Deadline for proposals: 14 February 2009

Amsterdam has always been a locus of powerful imagining, and for centuries the city has been the subject of representation in literature, music, and the visual arts. Yet while artists and writers have long emphasised the city's reputation for permissiveness and tolerance, in recent years the international image of Amsterdam as the paradigm of an "open society" has been charged with new significance and urgency. Against the backdrop of the war on terror, an increasingly polarised debate has taken place about multiculturalism and about new, global challenges to our Western models of capitalist democracy. In this context Amsterdam has emerged as a privileged site of representation which registers changes, instabilities, and contradictions in the contemporary self-image of the West. On the one hand, the city’s small scale and friendly face continue to secure a special - though often caricatured - place for it in the iconography of liberal democracy, and images of Amsterdam as open and tolerant have been reinflected and reassessed. On the other hand, international media coverage of the murder of Theo van Gogh and other recent events has located Amsterdam at the forefront of transformations that are felt to be underway or imminent in European society at large, turning the city into the site of various imaginings of the future. In a variety of ways, the image of Amsterdam stimulates utopian, heterotopian, as well as dystopian scenarios and speculations. Writers, artists, and film makers use the image of Amsterdam as a vehicle for reflection on much wider social, political, and cultural concerns, and their literary, filmic, and artistic renderings allow us to explore contemporary ideas about global and international developments.
This conference aims to examine the popular, literary, cinematic, and artistic image of Amsterdam in the age of globalisation. From internationally acclaimed novels by John Irving, Arnon Grunberg, and Ian McEwan to blockbusters like Soderbergh's Ocean's Twelve; from historical fictions by Deborah Moggach and David Liss to sociological journalism like Ian Buruma's Murder in Amsterdam; and from Albert Camus's classic novel La Chute to art films like Peter Greenaway's Nightwatching, the storehouse of international representations of Amsterdam is vast and diverse. But whether these representations focus on the city as the setting of experimental and alternative lifestyles, on its history as a cradle of early-modern and modern capitalism, or on the inter-cultural tensions (including a religiously motivated killing) which it has seen in recent years, Amsterdam has always triggered an intense and multifaceted response in the eyes of its international and Anglophone beholders. The conference welcomes papers that explore these issues from various theoretical, critical, analytical, and cultural perspectives.
Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
1.    Representations of Amsterdam as a transcultural meeting place: How do imaginings of Amsterdam situate the Netherlands in the world? By which strategies is the city constructed and marketed as a "brand"? In what sort of cultural practices and representations do the notions of tolerance, liberty and freedom commonly associated with Amsterdam find embodiment?
2.    Representations of Amsterdam as an historical centre of capitalism, commerce, and colonial trade: What are the politics and aesthetics of these imaginings in the face of a changing economic world order? How does Amsterdam function as a lieu de mémoire of the financial and economic world? Which scenarios for the future does the image of Amsterdam invite?
3.    Representations of "libertarian" Amsterdam: In imagining Amsterdam as a sanctuary for legalised prostitution and euthanasia, do artists and film makers respond to a reality which they see as being unique to Dutch society? Or, do they displace foreign or international concerns, problems, and issues onto the Dutch city? What sort of authority - historical or artistic, fact-based or fictional - do these representations claim? And how can we historicise these, often stereotypical representations?
4.    Representations of Amsterdam as the paradigm of an "open society" whose tolerance and long-standing multiculturalist ideals are currently under question: How has the image of the city changed since 9/11 and the "clash of civilisations" debate? How do literature, cinema, and the arts respond to the global coverage of recent Dutch news events? What sort of cultural transfers are facilitated by these responses?
Further suggestions for panels or individual papers:
•    Novels, comic books, and graphic novels set in Amsterdam.
•    Heritage films set in Amsterdam.
•    Amsterdam as the setting for life-changing experiences.
•    Lifestyles and Amsterdam.
•    Constructions of otherness in and through constructions of Amsterdam.
•    Popular music ("Dans le port d’Amsterdam") about Amsterdam.
•    Adaptations of classic Dutch novels.
•    The international reception of Netherlandic literature and film art.
•    Rembrandt in cultural memory.
•    Amsterdam as a centre of trade in the 17th century.
•    Imaginings of Dutch-American cultural transfers.
•    Amsterdam architecture and city spaces.
•    Cinematic transfers in mainstream film (e.g. Paul Verhoeven, Dick Maas) and art house cinema (e.g. Theo van Gogh, Peter Greenaway).
Proposals for individual papers of no more than 300 words should be sent to both Dr. Joyce Goggin <j.goggin@uva.nl> and Dr. Marco de Waard <marco.dewaard@uva.nl> by February 14, 2009. We also welcome proposals for panels of three speakers (summarising the rationale of the panel and providing abstracts of each paper). The conference will be held in Amsterdam, November 19-21, 2009, and will be jointly hosted by the Department of English and the Institute of Culture and History (ICH), University of Amsterdam and Amsterdam University College.
For registration details and regular updates about the programme and the plenary speakers: see our website http://www.hum.uva.nl/Imagining-Amsterdam
(posted 3 Nov '08)


  

December 2009

 



PREVIOUS PAGE
NEXT PAGE