Calls for papers for conferences taking place in February 2024

The XVI James Joyce Italian Foundation Conference in Rome: Prismastic Joyce.
James Joyce Italian Foundation, Rome. 1-2 February 2024.
Deadline for abstracts: 12 November 2023.

Keynote speakers:

  • Sun-Chieh Liang, National Taiwan Normal University
  • Fritz Senn, Zurich James Joyce Foundation

Organisers: Franca Ruggieri, Fabio Luppi, Enrico Terrinoni, Serenella Zanotti

The James Joyce Italian Foundation invites proposals for the Sixteenth Annual Conference in Rome to celebrate Joyce’s 143th birthday. 

After the Ulysses centenary celebrations, 2024 marks a hundred years since the first piece of Work in Progress was published in transition. From then, what in 1939 would have become Finnegans Wake started appearing in fragments giving Joyce’s ouvre a “prismatic shape”. In this conference we will reflect on the ways in which the various works by Joyce interact as if in perennial dialogue, and how they still affect us in new ways and why.

We invite scholars to send proposals for a 20-minute contribution. The Conference will be the occasion to present unpublished papers and works in progress on Joyce to an international audience. 

Related topics include, but are not limited to:

  • Joyce’ kaleidoscopic works
  • Interactions between Joyce’s works and internal intertextuality 
  • Translations as part of Joyce’s poly-system
  • Continuities and discontinuities in Joyce Studies
  • Rites of passage, eternal change, and transition between Ulysses and Finnegans Wake
  • Art and life in Joyce’s works
  • Translocutions and the evolution of language patterns in Joyce 

Please send an abstract (500 words maximum in length) along with a short “narrative” bio-sketch (300 words maximum in length NOT A CV!!!) ONLY TO joyceconference@gmail.com. Send two separate Word files. 

SUBMISSIONS WHICH WILL NOT COMPLY WITH THIS, WON’T BE CONSIDERED

Selected papers will be published.

The Conference includes a Joyce birthday party.

Deadline for proposals: 12 November 2023 

Accepted speakers will be notified no earlier than 26 November 2022

On arrival, participants will be expected to sign up for membership of The James Joyce Italian Foundation (Students: 35 euro; Individual Membership: 45 euro; Institutions: 50 euro; Supporting members: 70 euro). Accepted speakers will have to arrange their own accommodation and travel. 

Please visit the James Joyce Italian Foundation website for updates: http://thejamesjoyceitalianfoundation.wordpress.com/

NO ONLINE PRESENTATIONS. ALL PAPERS WILL BE DELIVERED IN PRESENCE.

(Posted 13 July 2023)

Literature and the Anthropocene in EFL Education.
Virtual Conference, 20-21 February 2024.
Abstract submissions: 31 August 2023.

The Anthropocene is a contested term that refers to the present geological era, where human activities  are negatively impacting the Earth’s environment and systems, including its climate, land, oceans, and  biodiversity. English as a foreign language (EFL) education provides valuable opportunities to introduce  global and intercultural perspectives on the challenges of the Anthropocene. One way to engage EFL  learners critically with the Anthropocene and make its complexity more accessible, immediate, and  meaningful to them is through literary studies.  

Literature has the power to challenge established ideas, inspire change, and offer fresh perspectives on  real-world problems associated with the Anthropocene. By envisioning alternative futures and scenarios,  literature can serve as a catalyst for positive action towards a sustainable future. It can also highlight the  intergenerational dimensions of the Anthropocene and provide context and continuity between the  present, past, and future. In addition, literature can help learners understand the human and non-human  experience of living in the Anthropocene and explore the social, political, and economic factors that  contribute to environmental problems. By analyzing and otherwise approaching literary texts, learners  can develop empathy and insight into the diverse experiences of living in different parts of the world  and gain a deeper appreciation for the interconnectedness of global systems.  

The conference aims to promote multidisciplinary research collaborations. A purpose of the conference  is to establish an international network focusing on how the study of literature in EFL can help readers  better understand and critically approach the challenges of the Anthropocene in ways that are both  significant and urgent. Keynote speakers are Roman Bartosch (University of Cologne), author of  Literature, Pedagogy and Climate Change: Text Models for a Transcultural Ecology (Palgrave  Macmillan, 2019), and Pieter Vermeulen (University of Leuven), author of Literature and the  Anthropocene (Routledge, 2020).  

We welcome 250-300-word abstracts for 15-minute conference papers that explore the role literature  has or can have in helping learners of EFL in primary, secondary, and tertiary education, including pre service teacher education, to identify respond to, challenge, or otherwise critically engage with the  Anthropocene. Topics can include but are not limited to the following:  

  • climate change  
  • ecological anxiety  
  • human-animal relationships  
  • imaginary futures, dystopian or utopian perspectives on the future  
  • imaginary or real technological challenges  
  • indigenous perspectives  
  • non-human perspectives  
  • representations of natural spaces and landscapes  
  • rewilding  

Paper presentations can introduce research ideas as well as present ongoing or completed research and  should be given in English. Please send a 250-word abstract of your proposed paper with a brief, 50- word, biography to malin.lidström.brock@ltu.se, marie.wallin@ltu.se, christian.ludwig@ltu.se by 31  August, 2023. 

Post-conference plans are to publish a selection of the papers either as a collection of  essays or as a special issue in a scholarly journal.

For more information about the conference, please  visit the conference website:  https://www.ltu.se/research/subjects/Engelska-med-didaktisk-inriktning/Konferenser/Digital konferens-Litteratur-under-antropocen-i-engelskamnet-1.228746?l=en

CFP

Literature-and-the-Anthropocene-in-EFL-Call-for-PapersDownload

(Posted 25 April 2023)

3rd Interdisciplinary Conference on Literature and Image: “Revisiting Fantasy and Adventure in Literature and the Visual Arts”.
UCAM (Universidad Católica de Murcia, Spain). Online. 22-23 February 2024.
Deadline for the submission of proposals (in English or Spanish): 10 January 2024.

The conference main focus will be on the analysis and discussion of the transformations undergone by fantasy and adventure literature-from the year 1935 onwards- within the fields of fiction, the visual arts, and other forms of popular culture. 

We will be particularly interested in addressing how fantasy and adventure works prompt us to raise the alert regarding situations of crisis, to reappreciate essentially human values, or to promote sociability, justice, civility, ethics and / or humanism.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to: 

  • Epic Fantasy and Medievalism: Warriors, Dragons, and Sorcerers. 
  • Fantasy and Adventure in Relation to the Discovery and Construction of Personality 
  • Passengers and Travellers through Time and Space 
  • Beyond the Borders of Our Reality: Fascinating and/or Threatening Alternative Dimensions 
  • Refashioning Classic Fairytales and Folktales for the Modern Age 
  • Exploration, Survival and Achievement: Past versus Present 
  • Heroes, Anti-Heroes and Smash Hits in the Field of Comics and Graphic Novels 
  • Appropriating and/or Rewriting Classical Mythology in Modern Fantasy and Adventure Works 
  • Fantasy and Adventure in Electronic Entertainment 
  • Fantasy and Adventure in Modern Animated Films 

Abstracts (between 300-400 words) stating the name, address and institutional affiliation(s) of the participant(s) should be sent via e-mail, together with a separate biodata (between 100 and 150 words), to jmvillar@ucam.edu. As shown above, the deadline for the submission of proposals (in English or Spanish) is 10 January 2024. 

Since this academic event will be held exclusively online, accepted speakers will be asked to record their presentations in video (following the instructions provided once their proposal is accepted). The deadline for sending these 20-minute recordings is February the 10th, 2024. After the conference, selected participants will be asked to prepare chapters for a forthcoming, peer-reviewed academic monograph.

The conference fee is 50€ per participant. The student fee is 20€. 

Conference booking options are available via our official webpage. 

Any conference updates and additional details will be posted online.

Official CFP

2ND-CALL-FOR-PAPERS_CONFERENCE-ON-FANTASY-ADVENTURE_UCAM-22-23-FEBR-2024Download

(Posted 1 December 2023)

Historical Fictions Research Network Conference.
University of Malmö (Sweden), 23 to 24 February 2024.
Paper proposals: 1st September 2023.

Conference Organisers: Cecilia Trenter (University of Malmö), Kristina Fjelkestam (University of Stockholm) and Claudia Lindén (University of Södertörn)

The Historical Fictions Research Network (see https://historicalfictionsresearch.org/) aims to create a place for the discussion of all aspects of the construction of the historical narrative. The focus of the conference is the way we construct history, the narratives and fictions people assemble and how. We welcome both academic and practitioner presentations.

The Network addresses a wide variety of disciplines, including Archaeology, Architecture, Literature, Art History, Cartography, Geography, History, Memory Studies, Musicology, Reception Studies, Linguistics, Cultural Studies, Museum Studies, Media Studies, Politics, Re-enactment, Larping, Gaming, Transformative Works, Gender, Race, Queer studies.

For the 2024 conference, HFRN seeks to engage in scholarly discussions on the topic of adaptation in historical fictions.

What happens when well-known historical narratives are adapted for present-day audiences, or are transformed into another genre or medium? Historical fictions induce questions about mediated heritage and collective memories and problematize processes of canonization and appropriations in local as well and global contexts (Cartmell, Hunter and Whelehan 2000). The term “classics” brings up discussions on claims about originals and copies, challenged by the idea of every mediation as one of a kind (Hutcheon 2012). Debates on what constitutes originals, models and adaptations raise questions on authenticity, eye-catching aspects when dealing with historical fiction. A central issue is how the afterlives and appropriations of historical canon and established narratives in history-writing are transformed into new generations of historical fictions. 

The term adaptation refers to how art work move from one medium to another. But as Linda Hutcheon states in A Theory of Adaptation, the phenomenon involves more than the journey from novel to film or film to video game or novel to filmscript and explains its complexity as “an acknowledged transposition of a recognizable other work or works; A creative and an interpretive act of appropriation/salvaging; An extended intertextual engagement with the adapted work. Therefore, an adaptation is a derivation that is not derivative—a work that is second without being secondary. It is its own palimpsestic thing.” (p. 9)

Thus the combination of adaptation and historical fictions sheds light on epistemological and cultural aspects on form and content, aesthetics and embodiment, values and ethics, authenticity and credibility, traditions and re-thinking and a variety of uses of the past in fiction. The perspectives of adaptation furthermore explore historical fiction as transformative contents in transmedial storytelling, mediated in old as well as new media, exploring how processes of adaptations and media form the content, including how story worlds and franchises are created. (Thomas 2022; Harvey 2015) Yet another angle is how adaptations invite users to interact in transcultural encounters such as fan culture in gaming and social media. 

Papers are invited on topics related, but not limited, to:

  • The past in fictional adaptations
  • Heritage, adaptation and historical fiction
  • Historical fiction and cultural legacy
  • Intermedial storyworlds and historical fiction
  • Adapting non-fiction to fiction
  • Renewals and traditions in historical fiction
  • Popular and ‘classic’ adaptations
  • Authenticity, adaptation and historical fiction
  • Adaptations between genres
  • Franchises, adaptation and historical fictions
  • Epistemological aspects on historical fictions and adaptations
  • Adaptation, historical fiction and pedagogics

Our Keynote Speakers:

Please use the form on our website to register a proposal:
https://historicalfictionsresearch.org/hfrn-conference-2024/

Paper proposals are due 1st September 2023. They should consist of a title, and an abstract of no more than 250 words. The decisions on acceptance will be communicated by 1st November 2023 at the latest.

HFRC 2024 will be an in-person event. The venue is at Malmö University, which is 25 minutes by train from Copenhagen airport. For information about Malmö University, please visit https://mau.se/

Contact

Visit our website (https://historicalfictionsresearch.org/) for more details and regular updates. You can also write to HFRN conference manager Dorothea Flothow on  historicalfictionsresearch@gmail.com

References:

  • Deborah Cartmell, IQ Hunter, Heidi Kaye, Imelda Whelehan (2020). Classics in Film and Fiction, Pluto.
  • Harvey Colin B (2015). Fantastic Transmedia. Narrative, Play and Memory Across Science Fiction and Fantasy Storyworlds, Palgrave Macmillan.
  • Linda Hutcheon, Siobhan O’Flynn (2012). A Theory of Adaptation, Routledge. Christian Thomas (ed.) (2022). The Art of Adaptation in Film and Video Games, Art.

(Posted 15 April 2023)