Correspondence: Travel, Writing, and Literatures of Exploration, c. 1750-c. 1850
7-10 April 2010
An international conference hosted by the University of Edinburgh and
National Library of Scotland
CALL FOR PAPERS
The University of Edinburgh (Institute of Geography and Centre for the
History of the Book), in collaboration with the National Library of
Scotland, is pleased to announce "Correspondence: travel, writing, and
literatures of exploration, c. 1750–c.1850"--a four-day, interdisciplinary
conference concerned with travel, travel writing, and the associated
literatures of exploration.
In bringing together scholarly perspectives from geography, book history,
literary studies, and the history of science, the conference seeks to
interrogate the relationship between travel, exploration, and publishing in
order better to understand how knowledge acquired 'in the field' became,
through a series of material and epistemic translations, knowledge on the
page. Plenary speakers include Elizabeth Bohls (University of Oregon), Joyce
Chaplin (Harvard University), Tim Fulford (Nottingham Trent University), and
Nigel Leask (University of Glasgow). Proposals for papers on all aspects of
travel in the period in question are welcome. Preference may be given to
papers which engage with one or more of the following themes:
- Travellers' inscriptive practices
How, where, when, and why did travellers and explorers choose to record the
details of their journeys? In what respects did the mode and style of
travellers' written accounts--whether rough notes, regularised diaries and
logs, thematic reports, or letters--discipline their content and reflect
their intended purpose?
- Travellers' credibility and the veracity of written accounts
Given that travellers and explorers were only ever partial and imperfect
witnesses, how did they assure themselves--and, through the published
versions of their work, their audiences--of the truth? How did their
accounts correspond to the things they sought to describe and understand?
What were the epistemological bases to travellers' claims to truth?
- The correspondence between manuscript and print
What were the material and epistemic transformations which turned
travellers' initial notes into completed, published narratives? Which
changes and adaptations were considered necessary in making the transition
from manuscript to print? How, in a pre-photographic age, were credible
illustrations produced in the field, and how did they supplement and lend
authority to printed texts?
Proposals of no more than 250 words should be sent to Dr Innes M. Keighren,
Institute of Geography, University of Edinburgh, Drummond Street, EDINBURGH,
EH8 9XP or by email to [log in to unmask] no later than 1 October 2009.
The organizers hope to have a programme of over twenty papers over the four
days of the meeting (including plenary papers).
Organizers: Dr Bill Bell, Dr Innes M. Keighren, Professor Charles W. J. Withers.
|