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.

The keynote speaker is Andrew Klevan (St Anne's College, University of
Oxford), author of Film Performance: From Achievement to Appreciation
(Wallflower Press)

The deadline for proposals is Monday 22nd December 2008.

Please pass this on to your colleagues, post-doctoral researchers and
post-graduate students.

best wishes,

Ceri Hovland & Lucy Fife Donaldson


Acting Out - A symposium on Screen Performance, Inference and Interpretation

20th March 2009, University of Reading

Keynote Speaker - Andrew Klevan, (St. Anne's College, University of Oxford)
- Film Performance: From Achievement to Appreciation (Wallflower Press)

Deadline for Proposals - Monday 22 December 2008 

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.

In order to encourage discussion the day will run with no parallel panels. 
We are inviting proposals for 20 minute papers. Please send us your 250 word
proposal, plus a short biography.

In addition, due to the surprising volume of interest we have already
received and the limited spaces we have available for papers, we would like
to encourage those interested to contact us, and for proposals to be
submitted as early as possible.

Please send us your 250-word proposal and brief biography by Monday 22
December 2008 via email to: [log in to unmask] Enquiries should be
directed to the organisers Ceri Hovland and Lucy Fife Donaldson at the same
email address. The CFP is also available on the conference website:
http://www.reading.ac.uk/ftt/research/ftt-actingout.asp

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? 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?

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?