CFP Edited Collection: Sensationalism and the Genealogy of Modernity (3/1/2014)

CFP Edited Collection

Sensationalism and the Genealogy of Modernity
Deadline: March 1, 2014 

A vast tradition of literary and theoretical reflections has mapped modernity in the fragmented, synaesthetic experience that characterizes urban life. From the paratactic verses of Wordswoth’s Prelude describing the city of London, to the discussion of the ‘shock’ effect and the hyper-stimultion of the urban sensorium in the works of Walter Benjamin, George Simmel, and, most recently, Ben Singer, the bombardment of ever changing stimuli targeting the perception of the urban flâneur has been set against a tradition of aesthetic and epistemological concern valuing the intuited principle of unity that granted access to truth.

The publishing industry has contributed to this new experience of modernity by transforming the production and dissemination of narrative units through periodical forms that mechanically reproduced the same episodic impressions, often by capitalizing on the shock factor in many genres of popular entertainment. The sensational potential of the plots of both popular fiction, drama, and early cinema have challenged and transformed the discourses of class, gender and national identity that structured the dominant culture.
A significant role in the transformation of aesthetic perception, artistic representation and the production of the print industry has been played by the research on vision and the analysis of movement in the course of the ‘long nineteenth century,’ as Max Milner, Jonathan Crary and Marta Braun, among others, have argued.  Nineteenth century research on vision has significantly altered not only theoretical discussions but the very modalities of vision that countless ‘philosophical toys’ and popular forms of entertainment disseminated at the level of the everyday.

This collection of essays seeks to map a genealogy of modernity through the ‘sensational’ by taking a comparatist, transnational, interdisciplinary and inter medial approach to the study of perception and the ways of constructing knowledge in the period going from the emergence of the discourse of aesthetics to the experimentations of the early twentieth century avant-garde.

Among the topics considered (but not limited to these):

• the emergence of aesthetics in the eighteenth century 
• the research on optics and motion and its impact on literary and artistic mimesis
• sensationalism in the eighteenth century
• the many forms of literary sensationalism in theatrical production and periodical fiction (melodrama, sensation novels, crime fiction, roman judiciaire, etc.)
• adaptations, translations and fortune of specific genres, works and authors of sensational literature in foreign markets
• violence, shock, and the project of modernity
• serialization and the status of the reader
• the montage effect in print culture
• political meanings of sensationalism
• irony and the urban sensorium
• sensationalism and the city/countryside dichotomy
• the responses to new media and the reverberations of optical toys in theoretical,  artistic and literary texts
• points of rupture/continuity in the historical narratives of modernism
• transmediation of the sensational in advertising, precinema and silent film
• the periodical press and the emergence of new journalism
• archeological approaches to the avant-garde
• urban modernism and subjectivity in the long nineteenth century
• the challenges to traditional notions of the sister arts
• comparative models of sensationalism and the genealogies of modernity
• commodity culture and the hybrid text of modernity

Please send a 1000-1500 word abstract and a short bio by March 1, 2014 to Alberto Gabriele (alberto.gabriele.tau@gmail.com)

CFP: Sensationalism and the Genealogy of Modernity (7/31/2013; 12/18-19/2013)

A Two-Day International Workshop
Tel Aviv University, December, 18-19, 2013

A vast tradition of literary and theoretical reflections has mapped modernity in the fragmented, synaesthetic experience that characterizes urban life. From the paratactic verses of Wordswoth’s Prelude describing the city of London, to the discussion of the ‘shock’ effect and the hyper-stimultion of the urban sensorium in the works of Walter Benjamin, George Simmel, and, most recently, Ben Singer, the bombardment of ever changing stimuli targeting the perception of the urban flâneur has been set against a tradition of aesthetic and epistemological concern valuing the intuited principle of unity that granted access to truth.

The publishing industry has contributed to this new experience of modernity by transforming the production and dissemination of narrative units through periodical forms that mechanically reproduced the same episodic impressions, often by capitalizing on the shock factor upon which many genres of popular entertainment depended. The sensational potential of the plots of both popular fiction, drama, and early cinema have challenged and transformed the discourses of class, gender and national identity that structured the dominant culture.

A significant role in the transformation of aesthetic perception, artistic representation  and the production of the print industry has been played by the research on vision and the analysis of movement in the course of the ‘long nineteenth century,’ as Max Milner, Jonathan Crary and Marta Braun, among others, have argued.  Nineteenth century research on vision has significantly altered not only theoretical discussions but very the modalities of vision that countless ‘philosophical toys’ and popular forms of entertainment disseminated at the level of the everyday.

This conference seeks to map a genealogy of modernity through the ‘sensational’ by taking a comparatist, transnational, interdisciplinary and intermediatic approach to the study of perception and the ways of constructing knowledge in the period going from the emergence of the discourse of aesthetics to the experimentations associated to the early twentieth century avant-garde.

Among the topics considered (but not limited to these):

• the emergence of aesthetics in the eighteenth century 
• the research on optics and motion and its impact on literary and artistic mimesis
• sensationalism in the eighteenth century
• the many forms of literary sensationalism in theatrical production and periodical fiction (melodrama, sensation novels, crime fiction, roman judiciaire, etc.)
• adaptations, translations and fortune of specific genres, works and authors of sensational literature in foreign markets
• violence and the project of modernity
• serialization and the status of the reader
• the montage effect in print culture
• political meanings of sensationalism
• the responses to new media and the reverberations of optical toys in theoretical,  artistic and literary texts
• points of rupture/continuity in the historical narratives of modernism
• transmediation of the sensational in advertising, precinema and silent film
• the periodical press and the emergence of new journalism
• archeological approaches to the avant-garde
• urban modernism and subjectivity in the long nineteenth century
• the challenges to traditional notions of the sister arts
• comparative models of sensationalism and the genealogies of modernity
• commodity culture and the hybrid text of modernity

Please send a 3-400 word abstract and a short bio by July 31 to Alberto Gabriele (alberto.gabriele.tau@gmail.com).

Registration open: RSVP 2012 “Sentiment and Sensation in Victorian Periodicals” (9/14-15/2012)

Registration is open for the Research Society for Victorian Periodicals conference, “Sentiment and Sensation in Victorian Periodicals,” September 14-15, 2012, at the AT&T Conference Center, University of Texas at Austin.

Papers will address any aspect of Victorian periodicals, particularly those on the discourse of sentiment and sensation in the newspaper and periodical press that variously promoted or targeted readerships, established journalistic networks or brands, and shaped, responded to, and/or addressed cultural and ideological concerns. For information about local arrangements and registration is available at the RSVP 2012 website, www.rsvp2012.org or by contacting Kathryn Ledbetter,KLedbetter@txstate.edu. Be sure to make your hotel reservations while conference prices are still active.

Reminder: Sentiment and Sensation in Victorian Periodicals (2/1/2012; 9/14-15/2012)

2nd Call for Papers:
Sentiment and Sensation in Victorian Periodicals
Research Society for Victorian Periodicals Annual Conference
September 14-15, 2012

The Research Society for Victorian Periodicals (RSVP) will hold its annual conference at the University of Texas at Austin, September 14-15, 2012. While papers addressing any aspect of Victorian periodicals will be considered, RSVP particularly welcomes proposals for papers on the discourse of sentiment and sensation in the newspaper and periodical press that variously promoted or targeted readerships, established journalistic networks or brands, and shaped, responded to, and/or addressed cultural and ideological concerns.

Suggested themes include but are not limited to:

• The serialization of sensation fiction
• Sentimental or sensational illustration
• Major scandals, legal cases, crimes, or controversies
• Affect, cognition, and readerly sensations
• Sentimental poetry or fiction in periodicals
• The rhetoric of sentiment/sentimentality
• Sport or theatrical sensations
• Gender and periodical genres
• Entrepreneurialism and fame
• Sensational formatting and headlines
• The feeling of print or the materiality of periodicals
• Physiology and psychology in the press

Please e-mail two-page (maximum) proposals for individual presentations or panels of three to rs4vp.2012@gmail.com.  Please include a one-page C.V. with relevant publications, teaching, and/or coursework. The deadline for submission of proposals is Feb. 1, 2012. Final papers should take 15 minutes (20 minutes maximum) to present. The program will also include a plenary speech named in honor of Michael Wolff, a presentation by the winner of the 2012 Robert and Vineta Colby Scholarly Book Prize, and workshops devoted to digital resources and to methods of teaching periodicals.

RSVP will announce travel grants for a few graduate students presenting papers closer to the time of registration. Graduate students interested in applying for travel grants should include a cover letter explaining how their conference proposal fits into their long-term research plans as well as any other special considerations. Recipients will be notified in the spring of 2012.

For information about local arrangements, check the RSVP conference website, http://rsvp2012.org, or contact Conference Chair Kathryn Ledbetter,KLedbetter@txstate.edu.