APOLOGIES FOR CROSS-POSTING
Dear All,
Please find below the call for papers for 'Acting Out' a one day
symposium on screen performance, inference and interpretation, to be held
at the University of Reading, on 20 March 2009.
We are delighted to announce that the keynote speaker will be
Andrew Klevan (St Anne's College, University of Oxford), author of Film
Performance: From Achievement to Appreciation
(Wallflower Press)
Please pass this on to your colleagues, post-doctoral researchers and
post-graduate students.
best wishes,
Lucy Fife Donaldson
Acting Out - A symposium on Screen Performance, Inference and Interpretation
"Clearly films depend on a form of communication whereby meanings are acted
out." (Naremore, Acting in the Cinema, p. 2)
"I would like to say that what I am doing in reading a film is performing
it (if you wish, performing it inside myself)" (Cavell, Pursuits of
Happiness, 1981, pp. 37-38.)
Keynote Speaker - Andrew Klevan, (St. Anne's College, University of Oxford)
- Film Performance: From Achievement to Appreciation (Wallflower Press)
This one-day symposium seeks to provide a forum for scholars of screen
acting to meet and progress the spate of recent work on performance on
film. We would like to explore how we draw out performance through an
interrogation of the relationship between performance, inference and
interpretation, but will consider proposals on other screen performance
related issues.
As viewers we frequently respond instinctively to the material and kinetic
details of the performer within their fictional world. In consequence, the
role of inference could be said to be indivisible from interpretation. But
how important is that moment between engaging with a performance and
analysing it? How do you find it and observe it?
The perceived problem of subjectivity is the ghost of film studies,
haunting many analyses but rarely addressed directly. How do discourses
around spectatorship effect discussion of performance? Could it be that the
study of performance is uniquely disposed to alerting us to the complexity
of engagement?
The broader implication of these thoughts is, how do YOU 'frame'
performance? And how are different analytical frameworks (e.g.
phenomenological, social role-play, practice-based approaches, close
analysis) specifically equipped to conceptualise these processes?
Equally, what is the role of inference in the process and production of
performance? What is left unsaid and/or assumed in performance?
Arguably, many performances communicate in non-verbal ways and leave a
certain amount to the imagination but how does this vary between
performance styles? More histrionic, melodramatic or ostensive performances
are frequently thought of as offering more privileged access to thoughts
and feelings or even a transparently clear communication of meaning. What
kinds of assumptions underpin this way of thinking about performance? And
where does this leave more contained or repressive performances?
Deadline for Proposals - Monday 22 December 2008
Please contact Ceri Hovland and Lucy Fife Donaldson at
[log in to unmask] with any questions or if you would like to discuss
any initial proposal ideas.
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