CFP: Vernon Lee (5/31/2013; 10/17-19/2013)

CFP: Vernon Lee

(Violet Paget, 1856-1935)

Women and Political Theory in the 19th and First Half of the 20th Century: Vernon Lee and Radical Circles

Université de Paris Diderot, UFR EILA

17-18-19 October 2013
ORACLE SAGEF,
The Sibyl, Niama, It Palmerino Cultural Association, Advancing Women Artists 

http://thesibylblog.com

“Vernon Lee” (Violet Paget, 1856-1935) is well-known for her remarkable erudition, her sharp analyses of arts, music, and literature, her travel accounts uncovering the mysterious presence of the genius loci, her studies on aesthetic contemplation hinging on the central notion of empathy, her fiction (novels and short stories), her theatre work, and even her involvement in the defence of the city centre of Florence.

But little is known about Vernon Lee as a campaigner against war, against imperialism, and as a free woman striving for an ideal society based on equal rights and universal brotherhood, whose voice grew louder and louder in her fight for peace in Europe and the world. Indeed, as Phyllis F. Mannocchi declared in her Florence paper, 28 Sept. 2012 : “In the scholarship on Vernon Lee, not much attention has been paid to the fact that as she approached late middle age, Vernon Lee seemed to discover her voice as a political ‘radical,’ a supporter of women’s suffrage  a participant in the anti-war movement, and an expert in international relations. Vernon Lee’s ‘radical’ politics were ‘natural’ to her. After all, she was a ‘born internationalist,’ who had lived in France, Germany, Switzerland, England, and Italy, and was multi-lingual. After expressing her opposition to the Boer War (1899 – 1902), Vernon Lee began to write more often on social, political, and international issues. WHY is it that so little is known of her writing on these issues during this later period of her life?” (Phyllis Mannochi, International Conference Violet del Palmerino : Vernon Lee’s Cosmopolitan Salon, 1889-1935, Florence, 27-28 Sept. 2012. Accessible: thesibylblog.com.)

This conference will aim to further the knowledge on Vernon Lee’s and other women’s radical theories in the 19th and first half of the 20th century, in relation to contemporaneous British, Italian, French, Swiss, and German radical circles.

We invite contributions on:

• Alice Abadam
• Annie Besant
• Clementina Black
• Irene Forbes-Mosse
• Isabella and Emily Ford
• Mathilde Hecht
• Emily Hobhouse
• Charlotte Perkins Gilman
• Clémence Royer

Favoured topics will include:

• Vernon Lee and (Fabian) Socialism
• Vernon Lee and Anti-Semitism
• Vernon Lee and Fascism
• Vernon Lee and Nazism
• Vernon Lee and Bolshevism
• Vernon Lee and India (Gandhi)
• Vernon Lee and International Relations
• Vernon Lee and women’s suffrage
• Vernon Lee and women’s role in society
• Vernon Lee and the relations between men and women
• Vernon Lee’s pacifism: the Boer War; WWI; the coming of WWII
• Vernon Lee and vivisection
• Vernon Lee and the UDC (Union of Democratic Control)
• Vernon Lee and the concert of nations (League of Nations)
• Vernon Lee and economics
• Vernon Lee and Europe
• Vernon Lee and the Dreyfus affaire
• Vernon Lee’s philanthropy

Please send your abstracts (title + about 450 words) before 31st May 2013 to
Michel Prum prum.michel@wanadoo.fr
Sophie Geoffroy geoffroysophie974@gmail.com

Comité scientifique/ Scientific Board

• Françoise Barret-Ducrocq (Paris Diderot)
• Florence Binard (Paris Diderot)
• Sophie Geoffroy (Université De La Réunion)
• Guyonne Leduc (Lille 3)
• Phyllis Mannocchi (Colby University)
• Michel Prum (Paris Diderot)
• Shafquat Towheed (London Open University)

CFP: Robert Browning’s legacy(ies) and transition(s) (4/30/2012; 12/6-7/2012)

Proposals for papers are invited for an international conference to be held at Lyon 2 University (France) on December 6th and 7th 2012, as part of the commemoration of the bicentennial of the birth of Robert Browning.

Too often relegated to the Victorian shelves of neglected literature, too often identified exclusively as the inventor of the dramatic monologue — also known as the Victorian monologue —, too often considered to be a difficult, if not obscure, poet, the victim of the readers of his century, who discovered him late, Robert Browning was blamed by the Victorians precisely for what the Modernists treasured in his poetry. By turns Romantic, post-Romantic, Victorian, and post-Victorian, Robert Browning’s works spanned almost the entire Victorian era, looking backwards to rediscover the Romantic period, and forward to herald the arrival of the Modern period, through innumerable complex poems, which he himself questioned and reworked. The main question about such a legacy is the reason why his contemporaries rejected it whereas the poets and readers to come would be proud of it. What are the traces he left in Victorian poetry that would survive their author unexpectedly and in spite of him? How and why is it possible to say that Browning’s poetry is one of legacy(ies) and transition(s)?

Proposals (300 words max.) for 30-minute papers in English or French should be sent by April 30th 2012 at the latest, accompanied by a short cv, to the following e-mail address: Jean-Charles.Perquin@univ-lyon2.fr.

CFP: Narrative Matters 2012 "Life and Narrative" (11/15/2011; 5/29 - 6/1/2012)

Narrative Matters 2012: Life and Narrative

The American University of Paris

May 29th to June 1st 2012 

DEADLINE FOR SUBMITTING ABSTRACTS: November 15, 2011

The American University of Paris, The University of Paris Diderot-Paris 7, and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research on Narrative at St. Thomas University, invite scholars from all disciplines to reflect upon the productive interplay between life and narrative. 

What is the relationship between life and narrative? As noted by Jerome Bruner in his article on “Life as Narrative” (1987), this is one of the central intellectual questions facing narrative inquiry and narrative practice across multiple disciplines – psychology, narratology and literary theory, digital media, sociology, history, sociolinguistics, philosophy, medicine, education, gerontology, communications, social work, ethics, religious studies, etc. Indeed, there is broad agreement that narrative representations (from novels to histories, biographies, websites, films, museums) and life are essential to each other. Narrative draws upon life for inspiration to create an imagined world that has substance, color, texture, and meaning. Meanwhile, life draws upon narrative for resources to imagine our identity and to interpret others, situations, and the “real” world. Both are involved in an intricate exchange, playing off one another, informing and creating one another. However, the relationship between life and narrative – between experience and story - is not merely theoretical in nature but practical as well. Narrative has a profound impact on our understanding of what it means to be human; of the choices we make as persons; of the nature of health and wellness, teaching and learning; of the meaning of history; of how social groups work through conflict; and of how the cultural and political world is ordered. 

Panels and papers: Scholars are invited to organize panel sessions and present papers on various aspects of the broad theme of “Life and Narrative.” Possible questions include:
 

• What is the relationship between telling and living?
• How can the narrative concept help us to better understand experience, interpretation and action?
• What does literature teach us about aspects of life, experience, mind, and social relationships?
• How can narrative research have a greater impact on the lives of real persons and institutions? How can narrative theory and practice better inform one another?
• Can there be a “true” narrative? What are the boundaries between fact and fiction, between autobiography and autofiction?
• How is identity storied, restoried, even de-storied across the lifespan?
• What is the effect of the media (new and old) on identity?
• What is the relationship between what is archived in individual memories and social institutions and the stories that we tell?

Conversations: Two plenary sessions will ask prominent scholars from different disciplines to present a short paper and discuss a central question related to life and narrative. Time will be given for debate and interaction between the presenters and the audience. 

Confirmed Plenary speakers:

• Mark Freeman, College of The Holy Cross
• Alexandra Georgakopoulou-Nunes, Kings College London
• James Phelan, Ohio State University

Comparing interpretations: A final plenary will compare and contrast approaches to the study of narrative. Our plenary speakers will discuss approaches to the study of research interviews and literature. The audience will be provided with the texts in advance of the plenary and will be given ample opportunity to exchange ideas with the panelists.

Language: Although the language of the conference will be in English, papers delivered in French are welcome. Scholars presenting papers in French are requested to bring a translated copy of their paper to the conference for distribution to the audience.

Workshops: Pre-conference workshops will be organized, principally for graduate students and beginning scholars, along the following themes:
1.     Translating narrative theory

2.     Doing narrative inquiry

3.     Digital narratives

4.     Narrative and social change

           
Guidelines for submissions: We welcome proposals for individual papers (20 minutes plus ten minutes for questions) and panels (90 minutes). Submissions should be in the language of presentation (English or French). Please submit your proposal, including an abstract of less than 250 words, on-line at: http://my.aup.edu/conference/narrative-matters-2012 <http://my.aup.edu/conference/narrative-matters-2012>

Abstracts are due on November 15, 2011.

Publications: An edited book will be published including the best submissions from the conference. If you would like your paper to be considered, please submit a complete draft no later than May 30, 2012. 
 
Contact information: If you have questions, please email us at narrativematters2012@aup.fr. Conference website coming soon. 

Organizing Committe:

• Brian Schiff. The American University of Paris.
• Sylvie Patron.The University of Paris Diderot-Paris 7. 
• Claudia Roda. The American University of Paris.
• William Randall. St. Thomas University.
• Elizabeth McKim. St. Thomas University. 
• Andrea Olguin. The American University of Paris. 

Registration open for Crime, Justice and the Modern State (Lyons, France, 9/8-10/2011)

The third in a series of international conferences on the theme of "Crime, Justice and the Modern State," organized by the SOLON criminal justice network, in collaboration with Lyon 2 University, France, will take place at two locations in the centre of Lyons over three days from 8-10 September. Although the conference covers several historical periods, many papers will be of interest to Victorian specialists, including:

• Kate Bates (University of Keele), "'A Full and Particular Account': Representations of State Violence in Early 19th Century Broadsides"
• Cécile Bertrand (Université Paris 7) "Managing Unruly Populations: Exclusion of Violent Classes from the Victorian Order in the 1830s"
• Christine Kelly (Glasgow University), "Criminalisation of children in Scotland 1840-1910"
• Adrian Ager (Oxford-Brookes University), "The Topography of Crime in the Medway Basin 1830-1890"

For further details and registration, please contact Neil Davie at: Neil.Davie@univ-lyon2.fr.

Neil Davie
Professor of British History,
Department of English,
Lyon 2 University,
Lyons, France

CFP: Aesthetic Lives, update and deadline extension (6/30/2011; 9/23-24/2011)

International conference: Aesthetic Lives (www.esthetismes.org)
Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier, FRANCE

23-24 September 2011

Guest speakers: Dennis Denisoff (Ryerson University, Toronto) and Ana Parejo Vadillo (Birkbeck College, University of London)

Deadline Extension: Please email your proposal by June 30, 2011 to catherine.delyfer@univ-montp3.fr AND bncoste@free.fr

Updated CFP:
‘[C]reating themselves out of themselves, and moulding themselves to what they were, and willed to be’

In 1873, citing Hegel’s vision of the Greeks, Walter Pater wrote in The Renaissance: ‘They are great and free, and have grown up on the soil of their own individuality, creating themselves out of themselves, and moulding themselves to what they were, and willed to be.’ This Paterian celebration of autonomy and self-fashioning was read with delight, cultivated, and variously implemented by the members of the Aesthetic Movement. Not only did Aestheticism create new objects, but it enabled singular lifestyles to be born. In the last third of the nineteenth century, the facts of existence ceased to be perceived as heteronomous. Life itself was gradually envisioned as a work in progress for an individual at once more aware of his/her freedom as subject and more conscious of changing societal constraints. New lifestyles flourished and novel representations of life emerged. From the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (which immediately preceded the Aesthetic Movement) to James Whistler, Oscar Wilde, William Morris, ‘Ouida’, ‘Michael Field’, or Edward Carpenter, many were those who devoted themselves to practicing and writing about literature and art while evolving a lifestyle which early twentieth-century critics would later identify with the 'men [and women] of the nineties.'

Fashioning one’s own life became both conceivable and technically and politically possible as individuals gradually ceased to acquiesce in given social configurations of power and value and started interrogating the status quo. Such questioning was often the source of original individual choices and collective interventions such as the creation of clubs, guilds, presses or journals. Within given social, economic and political structures/strictures, of which writers and artists were highly conscious, ‘Aesthetic’ living became an important embodiment of subjective experience and individual experiment.

After our first 2009 trans-disciplinary international conference entitled ‘British Aestheticisms’, our 2011 conference on ‘Aesthetic Lives’ hopes to focus on issues of Aesthetic subjectivity, on the lived experience of Aesthetic individuality or difference, and on original trajectories in the context of Aesthetic practices. How did writers and artists turn their existence into an artwork? What does it mean to found a club, an artistic community, a new journal when one is (or claims to be) an Aesthete? What were the cultural, social, economic or political constraints which hindered or enabled Aesthetic projects, aspirations and itineraries?

Importantly, the notion of ‘Aesthetic life’ is not meant in the limited biographical sense, but should be taken in the broad sense of a personal negotiation and a carving of one’s chosen itinerary or ethical choices in the context of Aestheticism. What kind of ethics can arise from Aesthetic choices? What are its daily manifestations, practically speaking? What were the obstacles or aporiae encountered by those who followed Pater’s ideas about self-fashioning and life as a work of art? How were these subjective choices received? And how do they anticipate the choices made by the figures of Modernism?

We welcome papers (in French or in English) studying individual artists and writers, specific formal or informal groups, and various arts of Aesthetic living. Descriptive and hagiographic approaches are to be strictly avoided.

Registration fee: 55 euros (includes coffee/tea and 2 lunches). A selection of papers will be published. Please email your proposal by June 30, 2011 to catherine.delyfer@univ-montp3.fr 

AND bncoste@free.fr

CFP: Aesthetic Lives (5/1/11; 9/23-24/2011)

ESTHETISMES.ORG

AESTHETIC LIVES

‘[C]reating themselves out of themselves, and moulding themselves to what they were, and willed to be’

An international conference at the

University Paul-Valéry Montpellier, FRANCE
23-24 September 2011

Conference organizers :
Catherine Delyfer and Bénédicte Coste

In 1873, citing Hegel’s vision of the Greeks, Walter Pater wrote in The Renaissance: ‘They are great and free, and have grown up on the soil of their own individuality, creating themselves out of themselves, and moulding themselves to what they were, and willed to be.’ This Paterian celebration of autonomy and self-fashioning was read with delight, cultivated, and variously implemented by the actors of the Aesthetic Movement. Not only did Aestheticism create new objects, but it enabled singular lifestyles to be born. In the last third of the nineteenth century, the facts of existence ceased to be perceived as heteronomous. Life itself was gradually envisioned as a work in progress for an individual at once more aware of his/her freedom as subject and more conscious of changing societal constraints. New lifestyles flourished and novel representations of life emerged. From the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (which immediately preceded the Aesthetic Movement) to James Whistler, Oscar Wilde, William Morris, ‘Ouida’, ‘Michael Field’, and Edward Carpenter, many were those who devoted themselves to practicing and writing about literature and art while evolving a lifestyle which early twentieth-century critics would later identify with the ‘men [and women] of the nineties.’

Fashioning one’s own life became both conceivable and technically and politically possible as individuals gradually ceased to acquiesce in given social configurations of power and value and started interrogating the status quo. Such questioning was often the source of original individual choices and collective interventions such as the creation of clubs, guilds, presses or journals. Within given social, economic and political structures/strictures, of which writers and artists were highly conscious, ‘Aesthetic’ living became an important embodiment of subjective experience and individual experiment.

After our first trans-disciplinary international conference entitled ‘British Aestheticisms’, our 2011 conference on ‘Aesthetic Lives’ hopes to focus on issues of Aesthetic subjectivity, on the lived experience of Aesthetic individuality or difference, and on original trajectories in the context of Aesthetic practices. How did writers and artists turn their existence into an artwork? What does it mean to found a club, an artistic community, a new journal when one is (or claims to be) an Aesthete? What were the cultural, social, economic, religious or political constraints which hindered or enabled Aesthetic projects, aspirations, conversions and itineraries?

Importantly, the notion of ‘Aesthetic life’ is not meant in the limited biographical sense, but should be taken in the broad sense of a personal negotiation and a carving of one’s chosen itinerary or ethical choices in the context of Aestheticism. What kind of ethics can arise from Aesthetic choices? What are its daily manifestations, practically speaking? What were the obstacles or aporiae encountered by those who followed Pater’s ideas about self-fashioning and life as a work of art? How were these subjective choices received? And how do they anticipate the choices made by the figures of Modernism?

We welcome papers (in French or in English) studying individual artists and writers, specific formal or informal groups, and various arts of Aesthetic living. Descriptive and hagiographic approaches are to be strictly avoided. A selection of papers will be published. Please email your proposal byMay 1st to bncoste at free.fr AND Catherine.delyfer at univ-montp3.fr

Guest speakers

Dennis Denisoff

Chair and Professor, Department of English, Ryerson University, Toronto

Author of Aestheticism and Sexual Parody (1840-1940) (Cambridge UP, 2001) and Sexual Visuality from Literature to Film (1850-1950) (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004)

Ana Parejo Vadillo

Senior Lecturer in Victorian Literature and Culture, Birkbeck College, University of London

Author of Women Poets and Urban Aestheticism: Passengers of Modernity (Palgrave Macmillan, 2005)

Conference fees : 55 euros (includes 2 lunches and coffee breaks)

Please log on http://www.esthetismes.org/ 

CFP: Aesthetic Lives (5/1/11, 9/23-9/24/2011)

"[C]reating themselves out of themselves, and moulding themselves to what they were, and willed to be"

Université Paul-Valéry Montpellier, France

23-24 September 2011

In 1873, citing Hegel’s vision of the Greeks, Walter Pater wrote in The Renaissance: "They are great and free, and have grown up on the soil of their own individuality, creating themselves out of themselves, and moulding themselves to what they were, and willed to be." This Paterian celebration of autonomy and self-fashioning was read with delight, cultivated, and variously implemented by the members of the Aesthetic Movement. Not only did Aestheticism create new objects, but it enabled singular lifestyles to be born. In the last third of the nineteenth century, the facts of existence ceased to be perceived as heteronomous. Life itself was gradually envisioned as a work in progress for an individual at once more aware of his/her freedom as subject and more conscious of changing societal constraints. New lifestyles flourished and novel representations of life emerged. From the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (which immediately preceded the Aesthetic Movement) to James Whistler, Oscar Wilde, William Morris, "Ouida," "Michael Field," or Edward Carpenter, many were those who devoted themselves to practicing and writing about literature and art while evolving a lifestyle which early twentieth-century critics would later identify with the "men [and women] of the nineties."

Fashioning one’s own life became both conceivable and technically and politically possible as individuals gradually ceased to acquiesce in given social configurations of power and value and started interrogating the status quo. Such questioning was often the source of original individual choices and collective interventions such as the creation of clubs, guilds, presses or journals. Within given social, economic and political structures/strictures, of which writers and artists were highly conscious, "Aesthetic" living became an important embodiment of subjective experience and individual experiment.

After our first 2009 trans-disciplinary international conference entitled "British Aestheticisms," our 2011 conference on "Aesthetic Lives" hopes to focus on issues of Aesthetic subjectivity, on the lived experience of Aesthetic individuality or difference, and on original trajectories in the context of Aesthetic practices. How did writers and artists turn their existence into an artwork? What does it mean to found a club, an artistic community, a new journal when one is (or claims to be) an Aesthete? What were the cultural, social, economic or political constraints which hindered or enabled Aesthetic projects, aspirations, and itineraries?

Importantly, the notion of "Aesthetic life" is not meant in the limited biographical sense, but should be taken in the broad sense of a personal negotiation and a carving of one’s chosen itinerary or ethical choices in the context of Aestheticism. What kind of ethics can arise from Aesthetic choices? What are its daily manifestations, practically speaking? What were the obstacles or aporiae encountered by those who followed Pater’s ideas about self-fashioning and life as a work of art? How were these subjective choices received? And how do they anticipate the choices made by the figures of Modernism?

We welcome papers (in French or in English) studying individual artists and writers, specific formal or informal groups, and various arts of Aesthetic living. Descriptive and hagiographic approaches are to be strictly avoided. A selection of papers will be published. Please email your proposal by May 1st 2011 to bncoste@free.fr AND catherine.delyfer@univ-montp3.fr.

Guest speakers to be announced soon.