italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
University of Pennsylvania - French and Italian Graduate Society 2014 Conference
March
22, 2014
NO MAN'S LAND - call for papers
Keynote
speaker: Prof. André Benhaïm
(Princeton
University)
The term “no man’s land”
came into general use in English during the First World War, referring to
inhabitable areas that saw the fiercest fighting between the two sides of the
conflict. No man’s land is full of emptiness, it is a ravaged space, shifting
constantly in size and shape, a lifeless and yet extraordinarily valuable
territory. Simultaneity, the explosion of temporality, and the powerful role of
boundaries all suggest that the First World War is a conflict that has to be
addressed spatially.And yet the term, “no
man’s land,” addresses a number of other discursive and experiential issues in
literature and theory that take it beyond the parameters of its primary
military and spatial designation. The in-betweenness of no-man’s land creates a
third space where the battle is not yet engaged, and surveillance seems more
important than the physical gap between rivals.
What, for example, are the
implications of gender, sex, race and class for the bodies placed in a disordered and
shattered landscape?Associated with ‘man’ in its
broadest definition, what does the paucity of references to women, to
African immigrants, to farmers or simply to humans imply?How do these diverse forms of
absence shape literary texts, theater, cinema and other visual arts?Do authors and artists offer
discursive and theoretical explorations of the non-representational, the non-figural or the
non-human as ways to reconsider existing certainties within their literary and
artistic fields?Of what use could this concept
of “no man’s land” be in a colonial and/or post-colonial world?And finally, what does it mean
to say that a land is not suitable for man?Possible topics could
include or be related to:
Spaces of war
Visions of hellTranscendental and liminal
spacesExile and/or spaces of transitMigrationLimits/FrontiersNationalism and TransnationalismControlled spaces (the prison,
school, etc.)Colonial and postcolonial
concerns with the unexplored (space, body, experiences, etc.)Body as space and/or space as
bodiesScience fiction (the non-human)The cosmicAnonymityForbidden or not yet fully
explored spacesContested spacesLandscapes in cinemaTheories of
(re/de)territorializationSpaces between disciplines The French and Italian
Graduate Society members welcome submissions in Italian, French and English
from a range of disciplines, including (but not limited to) language and
literature, art history, history, political science, sociology, theater, and
film studies. Presentations should not exceed 15 minutes.
Please send a 250-word
abstract with your name, affiliation, and email address at [log in to unmask] by January 15, 2014.
**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: subscribe italian-studies YOUR NAME
to: [log in to unmask]
To send a message to the list, address it to:
[log in to unmask]
To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe italian-studies
to: [log in to unmask]
In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to:
[log in to unmask]
For further information, visit our web site:
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/italian-studies
