Contemporary literary and cultural critics are notoriously careful with the time-honoured but dethroned grand terms “reality” and "truth". Authenticity, however, though closely related to the former, seems not to have suffered as severely from postmodern scepticism. On the contrary, looking at book blurbs and adds there can be no doubt: Authenticity sells. While the term might seem to serve merely as a politically correct way of reintroducing the true and the real, prominent cases of faked authenticity like that of Mudrooroo or Benjamin Wilkomirski's Fragments: Memories of a Wartime Childhood spectacularly prove that authenticity is not a mere empty sales slogan, but, on the contrary, is closely and indissolubly tied to questions of authority and power struggles, to ethical considerations and emotional investments. As such the importance of authenticity belies the "Death of the Author" proclaimed by Roland Barthes and becomes the site of tearing tensions between the fictional and the real, conventionality and originality, the margins and the centre, the same and the other. At the same time, authenticity as a term is far from being clearly defined and bears those contradictions within itself.

While it apparently hinges on notions of objectivity, truth and reality, it can also be used - rather paradoxically it would seem - to denote ardent, genuine expressions of subjectivity in the sense of being true to oneself. In both cases authenticity depends on giving the impression of being inherent, natural, found not created. Nevertheless it is often the result of careful aesthetic construction that depends on the use of identifiable techniques with the aim of achieving certain effects for certain reasons. To better understand the mechanisms behind this and the functions it serves is to get a clearer view on an important baseline of contemporary culture.

This conference therefore aims to explore further along these lines the appeal, the lure and the problems of discourses of authenticity. We would especially encourage papers concerned with the narrative and aesthetic strategies used to establish authenticity as a verbal illusion. Possible topics include but are not restricted to:

- Narrative Strategies for Generating or Subverting Authenticity
- Authentic Representation as an Aesthetic Category
- Authentic Representation and Realism
- The Ethics of Authentic Representation
- Authenticity and Alterity
- Authenticity and Simulation
- Authenticity and the Sublime
- Authenticity and Postmodern Theory
- Commodification of Authenticity
- The Politics of Authenticity
- Authenticity and Sincerity
- Authenticity and Originality
- Authenticity and Tradition
- Authenticity and Authority

Please send a 250-word proposal for a 20-minute talk and a brief CV to <irmtraud.huber@ens.unibe.ch> by 28 May

Wolfgang Funk (University of Hanover) <wolfgang.funk@engsem.uni-hannover.de>
or Irmtraud Huber (University of Berne) <irmtraud.huber@ens.unibe.ch>

(posted 17 January 2010)

The  2010 SEAC Conference, " Playfulness and Painfulness",  will be  held at the University of Nice-Sophia Antipolis, with the support of  CIRCPLES. The conference will take place on 5-6 November 2010, and we  have the pleasure to announce that  Graham Swift will attend the  conference as our guest of honour.

Having lost faith in hegemonic discourse and reassuring canonical resolution, postmodern literature seems doomed to remain "unconsoled". Doubts and pain are at the heart of texts which seek to convey affect -- yet which at the same time constantly mock mawkish displays of pathos and relish playful shifts of tone or even grim irony. Pain thus mingles with derision, while emotion is most often associated with playful devices. This unexpected association  entails a variety of stylistic and narrative devices, such as the recurrent use of first-person narration to convey and question emotion. Far from being simply playful or parodic, the wide scope of strategies shows not only the referential, but also the ethical impact of contemporary British literature. The first-person exploration of sundry emotions corresponds to the ethical quest defined by Levinas as a permanent effort to grasp the Other's irreducible alterity or otherness, in the face-to-face epiphany of an  encounter.

Thus papers dealing with this paradoxical interplay between ethics  and irony, irreverence and pain will be welcome, especially (but not  exclusively) if they address Graham Swift's own work. A projection of  the film adaptations of Swift's work (including Last Orders) is being considered by the Cinémathèque, so that we would also be happy to  accept papers dealing with cinematic transposition.

(posted 1 February 2010)

The Historical Discourse Working Group and the Leo Baeck Institute London with the support of the Centre for Anglo-German Cultural Relations would like to announce their first international conference to be held at Queen Mary, University of London on 10-11 November 2010.

The conference organisers, Professor Felicity Rash, Dr Geraldine Horan, Dr Daniel Wildmann and Dr Stefan Baumgarten, invite proposals in the form of abstracts of about 150-200 words on relevant topics in the analysis of pre-1945 nationalist, anti-Semitic or colonialist discourse. We welcome contributions which discuss issues of methodology or which adopt interdisciplinary approaches, and we hope to foster debate on points of contact between linguistics and the historical analysis of political and ideological discourses. We would be particularly interested in contributions on nationalist figures who are less well-represented in discourse research. It is hoped that academic colleagues at all levels of their careers, including postgraduate students, will offer to present papers or lead workshops.

The conference will be one of the events organised as part of the major research project, The Discourse of German Nationalism and Anti-Semitism 1871-1924, funded by the Leverhulme Trust and led by Prof. Felicity Rash and Dr Geraldine Horan. The project website is http://www.sllf.qmul.ac.uk/research/nationalismproject.

Please send expression of interest and abstracts to Dr Stefan Baumgarten by 15 April 2010: <s.baumgarten@qmul.ac.uk>.

(posted 18 December 2009)

4th international symposium of the Anthony Burgess Centre.
Christopher Marlowe and William Shakespeare were twin stars in Anthony Burgess's intellectual and artistic firmament. Inspired by them, he wrote and composed abundantly, from his MA thesis on Marlowe's Dr Faustus to the last novel published in his lifetime, A Dead Man in Deptford. He absorbed Shakespeare along the way, spawning Nothing Like the Sun, Enderby's Dark Lady, a biography, short stories, articles both journalistic and scholarly, a film script, a television series, songs, even a ballet suite for full orchestra.
In this, its fourth international symposium, the Anthony Burgess Centre intends to address the contrasted influences of these two Elizabethan heavyweights on Burgess and his work, exploring what they brought to it and what he, in turn contributes to our understanding of them.
Proposals of around 300 words for 30-minute papers in English, accompanied by a short bio-bibliography should be sent to Graham Woodroffe at <graham.woodroffe@univ-angers.fr> no later than May 17, 2010. The symposium will be followed by a publication. A selection of papers from the 3rd international symposium will be published late 2009 by Cambridge Scholars’ Press under the title Literature in Music and Music in Literature.

(posted 9 November 2009)

"We go to poetry for one reason, so that we might more fully inhabit our lives and the world in which we live them, and that if we more fully inhabit these things, we might be less apt to destroy both." Christian Wiman, editor of Poetry Magazine.

Can literature and the arts be irenic?  How are the arts a unique vehicle for promoting peace?  How do they enhance memory?  How do the arts play a role in the formation of public opinion?  What possible effects could they have in policy-making?  How might literature and the arts be a vehicle of resistance to tyranny? Our enquiry begins with, but is not limited to these questions.

The importance of literary and artistic contributions to the obtaining and preservation of peace has been recognized and rewarded by prizes such as the Peace Prize of the German Book Trade, the Erich Maria Remarque Peace Prize (awarded to Mahmoud Darwish in 2003), and others, often lesser known, such as the Leeds Peace Poetry Award or the Barbara Mandigo Kelly Peace Poetry Award.  Although the connection between the arts and the search for and preservation of peace is instinctively acknowledged, its exact nature is imprecise.

This conference will seek to examine and theorize the role of literature and the visual arts in search for "positive" peace (the elimination of causes of violence and the avoidance of conflict) and the creation of a peace culture.

Speakers will provide specific examples from literature in English (poetry, drama, fiction) or the arts (music, painting, sculpture, photography, and film).

If you would like to participate, please submit a 300-word propsal for a paper to be given in English, as well as a brief bio-bibliography by March 15, 2010.

Literary proposals should be sent to Jennifer Kilgore-Caradec <jennifer.kilgore@unicaen.fr> and all others to Claire Bowen <bowenclaire@aol.com>.  Peer-reviewed publication is anticipated.

(posted 10 December 2009)

The GRENDEL, the medieval section of the IDEA research group (Nancy University), invites proposals for an international and interdisciplinary conference devoted to the study of formulas in Medieval Culture, to take place on November 19-20, 2010. The conference is a follow-up to the successful 2008 Conference on Formulas in Medieval England.

Medieval modes of thinking and representation rely heavily on formulas, that is to say on the expected return of recognizable devices. The omnipresence of formulas in all aspects of medieval culture generates productive tensions between individual expression and collective norms, change and continuity, innovations and rituals.

The aim of the conference is to systematically explore these tensions through presentations devoted to various areas of the Medieval World and of Medieval Thought.

- Religious and political rituals
- Oral-formulaic theory
- Legal formulas
- Topoi and generic conventions
- Politeness and ritualized interaction
- Conventional motifs in visual arts

Papers may be given in English or French and should be 20 minutes long. Selected papers will be published in the proceedings of the conference.

Colette Stévanovitch <colette.stevanovitch@univ-nancy2.fr>
IDEA (Interdisciplinarity in Anglophone Studies)
23, bd Albert 1er
BP 3397
54015 Nancy Cedex
France

(posted 10 December 2009)

For decades, even centuries, London has been a global city ranking at world level in economic, cultural and financial matters, among others. The British capital has had its hours of glory and its times of trouble weathering wars, periods of economic upheaval and political ups and downs.

Now, at the beginning of the 21st century, this tumultuous and often rebellious past is part of the city and makes it unique at a time when it is faced with unprecedented challenges:

- maintaining its position as a leading banking center and stock-market in a world economy that is being constantly shaken by the global crisis, and resisting the competition of both its major rivalling cities and the megalopolises of the emerging countries.
- combining sustainable development with demographic pressure and the housing crisis.
- managing migratory movements which have contributed to its development and prosperity (Heathrow is the busiest airport in the world) but are more and more questioned by the British.
- meeting the 2012 Olympic deadline in a political and economic context that has been totally upset by the July 2005 terror attacks, the changes in City Hall and the lack of funding.

In order to cast as far-reaching a light as possible, the committee has opted for a definite pluri-disciplinary approach so that specialists of cultural studies, geography, economy, sociology, history, political sciences and other fields of studies may confront their opinions. Papers should aim at putting the suggested but not limitative issues into a contemporary perspective or choose a prospective angle. Since the London topic can only be understood in a clearly set national or international background, comparatist approaches will be welcome.

After approval by the reading committee, papers will be published in a forthcoming issue of Les Cahiers de l'Observatoire de la Société Britannique (spring 2011).

- Roseline Théron, Université Nancy2 (IDEA and a member of CRECIB) <roseline.theron@orange.fr>
- Timothy Whitton, Université Blaise Pascal (EHIC and a member of CRECIB) <twhitton@club-internet.fr>.

(posted 19 January 2010)

Conference jointly organized by research groups META (Université d'Orléans) and GRAAT (Université de Tours), Dec. 2-3, 2010, in Orléans.

Postcolonial criticism was particularly productive in its effort to reconfigure the canon (Western, imperial, male) and to allow for the emergence of a corpus of "new" literatures; however, it is nowadays questioned as a method, due to the joint transformations in the fields of representations and of politics (critical relativism, political correctness, etc.).

As postcolonial criticism is based upon the idea of a break leading to the emancipation of the individual from colonial and neo-colonial hegemony (by committing its practitioners "to the highly tangible pursuits of making colonialism visible in the world, and of helping to make it obsolete", G. Huggan, 2008), it could fail to account for the ideological, political and aesthetic diversity of postcolonial literature, by ignoring its forms of continuity and classicism. In a context that values multicultural positions (hybridity, creolity, relativism), a form of criticism is needed that would take into account the notions of tradition, resistance to innovation, or collaboration. One thinks, for instance, of the request for "intolerance" expressed by Slavoj Zizek in his criticism of multiculturalism (2004), or of the deconstruction by Laurent Jenny of the "terrorizing" metaphor of literature as necessarily "revolutionary" (2008), or of the reassessment of "anti-modern" writers by Antoine Compagnon (2005).

Participants may wish to discuss the work of postcolonial writers too hastily condemned for conservatism, such as V.S. Naipaul, Nirad Chaudhuri or J.M. Coetzee, at a time when a thriving publishing market is tending to favor community literatures. They may also consider the nostalgic, classical, or universal features to be found in the work of the main anti-imperialist figures, such as Rushdie, Walcott, or Achebe. Imagining the paradoxical possibility of a "rearguard" in

postcolonial literature could also require a new reading of its direct predecessors, such as Conrad, Kipling, Waugh, Greene, who all offer a complex and controversial representation of the colonial enterprise.

This conference will assess the political dimension of postcolonial literature, but also its fierce resistance to established political categories (left/right, liberal/conservative). Is it possible to think in terms of conservatism and eurocentrism and yet avoid the trap of a reactionary discourse? How does one account for authors who do not feel any solidarity with the preceding generations and whose project cannot be understood as the echo of a whole community? How does one interpret classicism (in style, themes) in a critical context that calls for the rise of newness and hybridity within language, close to the cosmopolitan mélange seemingly called for by the forces of globalization? Is it possible to make sense of postcolonial literature without ignoring the economic and political demands of the publishing industry (literary prizes, film adaptation) or museology ("arts premiers" in France, etc)

- <cecile.girardin@univ-orleans.fr>
- and <philip.whyte@univ-tours.fr>

(posted 10 December 2009)

What we know as nomadism is a phenomenon that has existed since the very beginnings of mankind. It has always been closely related to the seasons and to the resources available to populations through hunting, fishing and gathering. Then came agriculture and the raising of livestock, both of which activities ensured regular supplies of food and a certain degree of comfort. The subsequent widespread evolution towards sedentary economic and social activity, which, to most, represented progress, began de facto to push the nomad, henceforth a radical 'Other', out onto the margins of society. It was not long before the lack of understanding of such a lifestyle developed into mistrust and then into repression.

Yet in Europe, people were forever on the move, living (on the) outside, whether by choice or under duress. As early as the Middle Ages, the 'fashion' of going on a pilgrimage to Compostella launched thousands of people forth, even those who were not necessarily staunch believers. On the way, they came across those that remained? actors or spectators? after the countless local conflicts that weakened a continent that was still recovering from the fall of the Roman Empire; there were civilians in flight, soldiers on campaign, rascals and rogues, peddlers and prophets; most of them had a strong inclination to interpreting local laws and customs after their own fashion, which certainly did nothing to help their reputations.

Since then, Judeo-Christian societies have wavered between fascination and repugnance for what was seen as a desirable (carefree) yet at the same time contemptible (being that of social parasites) existence. Very early on, these societies endowed themselves with a whole batch of laws enabling them to separate what they saw as the 'good seed' (pilgrims, priests) from the 'chaff' (idlers, gypsies, Jews). Literature then positively laid hold of such humble odysseys, the plastic and graphic arts soon following suit.

The purpose of this conference is to fix an image of the vagabond in Western culture, within a diachronic perspective, from the Middle Ages to the present day. Firstly, the aim will be to establish a sociological framework for the impact this issue had/has had (from the legal, religious, social, medical, cultural perspectives, among others), by comparing the various attitudes to the phenomenon, as well as the evolution they have gone through: compassion, charity and hospitality gave/have given way to distantiation, reprehension and exclusion, even physical elimination. Secondly, the focus will be on the vagabond and (on vagabondage) as an eminent figure, be he/she the victim, or the advocate, of Otherness in the service of creation; there is a wide range of examples from the medieval pilgrim to today's homeless; the picaro, the gypsy, the Wanderer, the hobo, the beatnik or the hippy are but a few of the many that can be studied in an endeavour to bring out a paradigm.

Proposals (200 words maximum) have to reach us before the 1st February 2010. The number of participants is limited at 70. A collection of articles based on contributions to the conference (after approval by the scientific committee and a reading panel) will be published during the course of 2011.

(posted 30 October 2009)

The world is ever 'on the move'. The opportunities and challenges of both real and virtual travel are very much at the heart of the emergent interdisciplinary field of 'mobilities', which deals with the movement of peoples, objects, capital, information and cultures across an increasingly globalised and apparently borderless world. In the practices, processes and performances of moving -- whether for voluntary leisure, forced migration or economic pragmatism -- we are faced with the negotiation and re-negotiation of identities and meaning relating to places and pasts.

Within the increasing complexities of global flows and encounters, intercultural skills and competencies are being challenged and and re-imagined. The vital role of languages and the intricacies of intercultural dialogue have largely remained implicit in the discourses surrounding mobilities. This Conference seeks to interrogate the role of intercultural communication and of languages in the inevitable moments of encounter which arise from all forms of 'motion'.

This international and interdisciplinary event is the 10th anniversary conference of the International Association of Languages and Intercultural Communication (IALIC) and is being organised in association with the Centre for Tourism and Cultural Change. Through this event we aim to bring together many of the sub-themes of previous IALIC conferences and focus upon the issues of culture, communication and translation in a mobile world, including: languages and intercultural communication in local and global education, tourism, hospitality, migration, translation, real and virtual border-crossings.

We are pleased to receive 20-minute research papers or descriptions of pedagogical practice which address or go beyond the following themes:

•    Moving languages - continuities and change;
•    Real and virtual border crossings;
•    Tourist encounters and communicating with the 'other';
•    Tourism's role in inter-cultural dialogue;
•    The languages of diasporas and diasporic languages;
•    Dealing with dialects and the evolution/dissolution of communities;
•    Hospitality and languages of welcome;
•    Learning the languages of migration;
•    Lingusitic boundaries and socio-cultural inclusions and exclusions;
•    'Located' and 'dislocated' languages and identities;
•    Practices and performances of translation.

Please submit an abstract of no more than 500 words including title and full contact details as an electronic file to Jane Wilkinson at <IALIC2010@leeds.ac.uk>. You may submit your abstract as soon as possible but no later than 1st June 2010.

(posted 30 January 2010)

Co-hosted by University Paris-Diderot and University Versailles-St Quentin
Venues: University of Paris-Diderot (Centers Charles V and Paris-Rive Gauche) and Institute of Protestantism in Paris.

The third EEASA conference (Paris, December 2010) invites scholars of early American history and the Atlantic world to reflect on the role of the 'past' within the time frame, 1607-1865. These two and a half centuries were often constructed by contemporaries not only through a teleological, progressive or providentially-motivated perspective, but also in a retrospective mode. The urge to revolve, to have a 'revolution' in its original sense of an eternal return to a distant past "the past embodied by a 'purer' America, Europe or Africa" was transformed into idealized beginnings, especially in times of crisis and uncertainty.  These moments include the late seventeenth-century Puritan world as expressed through the jeremiad or the invocation of the 'spirit of 76' in the later years of the early republic, as well as by the independence movements in Latin America. For American radicals looking to France, 'the spirit of 1789' was an inspiration when it was feared that the original meaning of the new United States might have been forgotten. Examples also extend to the idea of 'the noble savage' for Europeans 'imagining' Native Americans, and the idea of an indigenous Afro-Caribbean culture that early Haitian historians posited in seeking the origins of their Revolution.

These are only a few instances of the roles played by the multiple pasts that made up early American and Atlantic history. They are notably reflected in the current interest in commemoration, memory or nostalgia studies and can be looked at through the history of emotions as well as of material culture, or in the tracing of intellectual and political transfers in their transatlantic as well as trans-American dimensions. From a more theoretical standpoint, this wide-ranging topic may lead to philosophical reflections on changing conceptions of history and relationship to time in the formative years, from early providentialism to a need for a common history in the process of post-revolutionary nation-building in the first half of the nineteenth century. More generally, this topic offers a platform for broader historiographical considerations on our practice as historians of early American history and the Atlantic world.

Please send your proposal up to 300 words and a brief resume (one page) to Allan Potofsky <apotofsky@gmail.com> and Naomi Wulf <naomi.wulf@univ-paris3.fr>. The deadline for submissions is January 31, 2010. Applicants will be notified whether they have been accepted by the end of February 2010. Preliminary short versions of the papers are due in by November 1, 2010 for pre-circulation. The main language in which the conference will be conducted is English.

(posted 17 November 2009)

The work of Graham Greene (1904-1991), itself so representative of its time, has lost little of its appeal even though more than one generation has gone by since his death. This may be due in part to the fact that the conception of literature it reflects was more forward-looking that it could appear then. It can be called committed literature, not in the sense that it serves a party or an ideology, but insofar as the author commits himself as a witness to current events. And some of the topics it confronts – imperialism and colonial or postcolonial conflicts, the emergence of the Third World, cultural shocks, drugs, crime – are not about to disappear from our horizon. One would even add that the very form of his work, its aloofness vis-à-vis the great modernist debates, makes it appear, with hindsight, more modern. Having begun as a journalist, Greene was one of the first “serious” writers to distinguish himself as reporter, screenwriter, and author of detective fiction.
The Centre Jacques Petit, which devotes part of its research activities to the study of Roman Catholic writers, could not fail to concern itself in a major way with the spiritual side of Greene's work, which gives him a standing comparable to that of Georges Bernanos and François Mauriac in France. A successful writer in his country while belonging to a minority religion, a convert to Catholicism who had a less and less easy relationship with the postwar Church, Greene occupies both a preeminent and a paradoxical position among the great Catholic writers of the twentieth century.
The international colloquium to be held in Besançon in December 2010 will address the current relevance of Greene's work from all possible viewpoints, including his relations with his contemporaries and from a comparative angle.
Paper proposals (400 words maximum) are to be submitted by 31 December 2009. They should be sent electronically as attachments to the following addresses:
- <bruno.curatolo@univ-fcomte.fr>
- <vincent.giroud@univ-fcomte.fr>.
The languages of the colloquium will be English and French. Papers are not to exceed thirty minutes.

(posted 21 September 2009)