CALL FOR PAPERS
RUINS AND RECONSTRUCTIONS: POMPEII IN THE POPULAR IMAGINATION
17th-19th July 2007, Clifton Hill House, University of Bristol
In the two hundred and fifty years since excavations began, Pompeii has
became a major source of inspiration to western imaginations. The site,
and the widely accessible creations it inspired throughout the nineteenth
and twentieth centuries (novels, films, paintings, exhibitions, domestic
interiors, souvenirs and guide books) brought antiquity into the public
sphere of knowledge, to be shared between gentleman enthusiasts, middle-
class readers and music hall audiences alike. More recently, whilst the
physical state of the site itself has reached a critical state of decay, a
surge of popular interest in Pompeii, a prototype ground zero, has seen
the city, as imaginative tool, model of disaster and tourist hotspot,
reach a wider audience than ever before.
This conference, sponsored by the Bristol Institute for Research in the
Humanities and Arts, will explore the popular receptions and
representations of Pompeii. Our aim is to provide a stimulating
environment in which academics studying the city and its reception can be
brought together with practitioners who have tried to bring Pompeii to
life in media such as novels, painting, photography, documentary and
journalism. Confirmed keynote speakers include Andrew Wallace-Hadrill,
Mary Beard, Stephen Harrison, Stefano de Caro and Lindsey Davis.
The conference organisers now invite proposals for 30 minute papers on any
aspect of Pompeii’s reception, or on any of the following themes:
immorality and decadence; taste and domesticity; visualising disaster;
ghosts and ruins; sex and death. Please send a 300 word abstract to
Shelley Hales ([log in to unmask]) or Joanna Paul
([log in to unmask]), or to Shelley Hales, Dept of Classics &
Ancient History, University of Bristol, 11 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8
1TB. Abstracts must be received no later than 30 November 2006.
http://www.bris.ac.uk/arts/birtha/conferences/pompeii/index_html
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