ANNOUNCEMENT

The Open University Literature and Music Research Group 

Don Juan: Interdisciplinary Symposium 

23^rd September, 2011

Institute of Musical Research and Institute of English Studies, Senate House, London,

The Don Juan story is one of the most enduring of modern cultural myths, with retellings and versions spanning several centuries and occurring in the widest imaginable range of cultural forms and narrative media. This informal study day seeks to explore the diverse manifestations of this myth.

The day is open to graduate students, early career and established researchers. We aim to include papers addressing the potential for teaching and researching the rich inheritance of the Don Juan myth, in a wide variety of media. The event is organised by the Literature and Music Research Group of the Open University and will be hosted by the Institutes of Musical Research and English Studies. The convenors are Katia Chornik, Delia da Sousa Correa, Fiona Richards and Robert Samuels. 

We warmly welcome proposals for papers on literary, musical and visual versions of the Don Juan story, and on the many cultural manifestations of the Don Juan figure. Graduate students and those with a teaching interest in this topic are especially encouraged to offer papers.

Topics for the day may include, but are not limited to: 

Don Juan in literature, from the Golden Age Spanish Drama to the present day, from Molina’s El burlador de Sevilla y convidado de piedra to Derek Walcott’s The Joker of Seville.

Operatic and other musical versions of Don Juan from Mozart and Da Ponte to Lloyd Webber.

Relationships between literary and musical realisations of the Don Juan myth.

Topics in musical or literary theory and analysis, and topics in inter-medial studies or musico-poetics. Other interdisciplinary Don Juans.

Don Juan from a psychoanalytical perspective.

Don Juan in film.

Romantic and/or pre-Romantic Don Juans, for example, the pre-texts and afterlife of Byron's Don Juan. 

Don Juan as an iconic figure at large within and beyond the Don Juan story.

Don Juan in contemporary popular culture.

Papers will be a maximum of 15-20 minutes in length, to allow for discussion to be prioritised during the day. Abstracts (max 200 words) should be sent to Katia Chornik, [log in to unmask] by Friday 17th June

The event will take place in Room G22/26, Senate House, from 10.30 – 17.00.

Institute of Musical Research and Institute of English Studies

School of Advanced Study, University of London,

Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU