Colloquium
Modernisms
3 and 4 June 2005
Faculdade de Letras – Universidade de Coimbra
What is modernism? What was modernism? What will modernism be? Why modernisms?
The first and second questions have been asked many times in the past fifty
years.
The third question, asked here probably for the first time, implies the
history that brings the concept, or the concepts, into an ever-changing
context.
Finally, the fourth question interpellates the other three, while legitimating
the plural in the colloquium’s title.
No conclusive answer has been given so far to the two first questions.
Predictably, it never will. The concept of “modernism” appears to be
constantly shifting, whether regarding time, space, subject matter or style.
There are today as many definitions of modernism, whether explicit or
implicit, as fields of knowledge or scholars writing about what they
consider “it” to be. The most satisfying answers are those that are aware of
their own limitation and deficiency, those presenting themselves as mere
provisional descriptions, inviting expansion, elaboration and refinement.
Hence the third question. Far from encouraging futurology, the third question
is a reminder that scholarship, too, is located in history, and thus subjected
to constant change. Discourse on modernism, or modernisms, changes each time
it is put in action, and will be necessarily different fifty years from now.
The fourth question echoes an ethical concern typical of a global age of
multicultural awareness. What seems to have originally emerged in the first
half of the twentieth century as a fairly well-contained, fairly definable
Western (if not heavily Anglo-American) literary/artistic phenomenon has been
recently amply and variously reconceptualized as far more spacious and
diverse, and subjected accordingly to various kinds of revisions. The
colloquium’s plural “modernisms” is witness to this approach.
The colloquium marks the conclusion of a collective research project,
entitled Memory, Violence and Identity: New Comparative Perspectives on
Modernisms, and conducted at the Center for Social Studies (CES) by
researchers of the Nucleus for Comparative Cultural Studies (NECC). Its main
objective, however, is not to present concrete results (even though this will
be the case as well) but rather to create a forum for reflection and exchange
of ideas on a much contested subject, and to discuss once again the many
implications and ramifications of a very problematical concept.
The colloquium gathers together a number of national and international
scholars, well known for their work in the field.
Organization: Núcleo de Estudos Culturais Comparados, Centro de Estudos
Sociais, Universidade de Coimbra.
For further information and registration, see:
http://www.ces.fe.uc.pt/misc/coloquiomodernismos.php
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