Call for Participants: Workshop on Colour in Literature

Friedrich Schlegel Graduiertenschule für literaturwissenschaftliche Studien, Freie Universität Berlin

13-14 February 2015, Berlin

Over the last two decades there has been increasing interest in the study of colour. Research undertaken by, among others, Michel Pastoureau, John Gage, Jacques Le Rider and Carole Biggam, and groups such as Centre Français de la Couleur or the Glasgow Colour Studies Group has formed a basis for recent cross-disciplinary projects, for instance at the Max-Planck-Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte in Berlin or POLYRE at Paris-Sorbonne. Literary studies have often been underrepresented in this research, but recently, with conferences such as 'Farben der Prosa' (2013, LMU München), 'Definition(s) of color' (2013, Paris 7) or 'Gold in/and art' (2014, Université de Toulouse), the use of colour in literature has begun to be recognised as a fruitful topic of study.

Problems of method and terminology, however, have often been neglected. This workshop aims to put pressure on these questions, which include:

- What is colour? To what extent are the insights of other disciplines (art history, aesthetics, cognitive science, linguistics) applicable to or useful for the study of literature? 

- What is colour symbolism, and how does it work? 

- What functions does colour have in a literary text? Do these cut across lines of period, genre, language, culture?

- How does one analyse colour in literary texts? Should our readings be close or distant (for instance)?

The workshop is aimed at postgraduates and early career researchers who work on colour in literature or have a particular interest in this area. Participants will have time to discuss their projects as well as demonstrate their approach using a concrete literary example or series of short examples. The second part of the workshop will be dedicated to discussing and developing methods for our own, and future, research.

The workshop is open to those working on the literature of any language or languages; however, in order to facilitate discussion, participants should have at least passive knowledge of German, French and English.

Expressions of interest of no more than one side of A4 should be sent to [log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask] by 21st November and should contain the following information:

*a short summary of your project

*the literary example or examples you intend to use

*one or two specific methodological questions or problems that you would like to discuss

*a short biography.

Successful participants will be contacted at the end of November. Contributions to travel and accommodation costs will be available for those coming from outside Berlin. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to contact us!

Rey Conquer (Oxford)

Élodie Ripoll (FU Berlin/EHESS)