 |
 |
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Peter Davies <[log in to unmask]> CALL FOR PAPERS: Centre for Nineteenth-Century Studies University of Sheffield in association with the Departments of History, Germanic Studies and English Literature and the National Centre for English Cultural Tradition International Interdisciplinary Conference Friday 7 - Sunday 9 September 2007 "The Voice of the People: The European Folk Revival, 1760-1914" Convenors: Timothy Baycroft, Joan Beal, Matthew Campbell, Hamish Mathison, Michael Perraudin, Marcus Waithe The rediscovery and revalidation of the 'culture of the people' was a defining feature of artistic and intellectual life in the societies of nineteenth- and late eighteenth-century Europe, and it underpinned many of the key ideological tendencies of the times. Romantics and pre-Romantics articulated their sense of the inadequacy of cosmopolitan rationalism by espousing the cultural productions of ordinary (uneducated, rural) people as repositories of pre-rational truth and authentic experience. The nostalgic imitation, collection and study of folksong, folktale, folk custom and folk belief which this engendered became a process of linguistic, historical and mythical identity-formation with powerful political consequences; and the new nationalism which increasingly destabilised the European political order over the course of the nineteenth century gained its legitimacy from such activity. At the same time, radical movements from the late eighteenth century onwards found sustenance in evidence of the cultural autonomy and superiority of ordinary people, in customs and festivals, songs and story-telling. Nineteenth-century socialism did not seek to root itself in resuscitated systems of myth, but its mythologisation of the proletariat had a related intellectual impetus. The European nineteenth century, it can be said, was the age of the people and peoples, of masses and nations; and the cultural expression of this identity was the folk revival. The proposed conference aims to encompass the span of the European folk revival from its beginnings in the middle of the eighteenth century to its cataclysm, the war of the peoples, World War One. The revival's British emergence from 1760 in works such as Macpherson's Ossian or Percy's Reliques will be traced. Its reception and philosophical development in Germany by J.G. Herder and its further elaboration by British, German and French Romanticism (Wordsworth and Coleridge, Renan and Arnold, Novalis and the Schlegels, Arnim, Brentano and the Grimms) will be examined. The folkloristic or popular-cultural dimensions both of nineteenth-century socialist utopias - Saint-Simon, Marx, William Morris - and of the diverse national movements of nineteenth century Europe, from Ireland to Italy, Belgium to Bulgaria and beyond, will be observed. Offerings from all relevant branches of political, social, cultural, linguistic and literary history are encouraged. Analyses of modern re- revivals would also be of interest. The main language of the conference will be English, but papers can also be delivered and discussed in German and French. Possible topics for papers include: Macpherson, Percy, Herder and their descendants Nationalism, regionalism, cosmopolitanism Celt and Teuton, Latin and Slav Socialism and folk nostalgia Democracy and demagoguery Gender, nation and folk Translation, renovation and forgery The language of the folk Mythologies old and new Folktale and fairy-tale Epic poetry and folk lyric Hybridity, authenticity and synthetic form Ballad, performance and print Folklore and education Fine art, folk art Music and folk-song Historians, poets, collectors, editors, theorists of the Folk Revival Papers will be 30 minutes long. To apply to deliver a paper at the conference, please send by email an abstract of a few lines plus a brief c.v. to one of the convenors (t.baycroft@ j.c.beal@ m.campbell@ h.mathison@ m.perraudin@ m.j.waithe@ sheffield.ac.uk) AND simultaneously to the conference email account ([log in to unmask]). Deadline for submission: December 1st 2006 Preliminary expressions of interest would be welcome Conference web address: www.c19.group.shef.ac.uk/folkrevival.html Prof Michael Perraudin Department of Germanic Studies University of Sheffield, Sheffield S10 2TN, GB