italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
Dear colleagues,
There is a space for a paper in Italian Studies at the seminar on "The
Aesthetics of Disgust: Revolting Bodies and Other Gruesome Things in
post-1990 Women's Writing", organised by the Centre for the study of
Contemporary Women's Writing (IGRS, University of London), 26th June
2013.
If interested, please read the Call for papers below and write to
Katie Jones ([log in to unmask]) and Gill Rye
([log in to unmask]).
Best wishes,
Adalgisa Giorgio
***
CALL FOR PAPERS (deadline 15 March 2013)
The Aesthetics of Disgust: Revolting Bodies and Other Gruesome Things
in post-1990 Women?s Writing
A CCWW seminar
Wednesday 26 June 2013, 2pm
Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women?s Writing (CCWW), Institute
of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London
Organiser: Katie Jones (Nottingham)
Disgust is a strong, immediate visceral reaction. Classed among the
universal human emotions, it can feel like an obvious or even a
natural response to physical stimuli such as putrefaction or bodily
waste products. However, a closer look at the cultural construction of
disgust and its elicitors reveals a much deeper complexity: while the
disgust reaction itself may be intrinsic to humans, the cultural
meanings ascribed to particular objects, bodies or behaviours play a
significant role in whether or not they are experienced as disgusting.
This interplay between bodies and ideas makes the disgusting a
particularly powerful source of metaphor in literature, but the often
extreme nature of the disgust response means it is hard to control.
Disgust is also problematic for feminist analysis, due to a
misogynistic tradition in which the female body has often been coded
as disgusting. While excrement and corpses are key elicitors of
disgust, images of pregnancy, menstruation and excessive fleshy
femaleness are disproportionately present in cultural representations
of the disgusting, and, according to Winfried Menninghaus (1999), the
body of the old woman is the ultimate object of disgust, bringing
together key cultural anxieties about ageing, sex and death in one
horrifying image.
Since the late 1990s, there has been a marked increase in theoretical
interest in disgust in a range of fields of enquiry. As Carolyn
Korsmeyer (2011) points out, this has coincided with an increase in
the production of artworks that represent disgust as their main focus,
or which set out to provoke disgust in their audience.
This symposium seeks to take advantage of this disgusting moment in
aesthetic representation and theory to develop a new approach to
reading contemporary women?s writing. Bringing together analyses of
literature in French and German, Spanish, Portuguese or Italian, the
papers will consider the various ways in which women represent,
manipulate and engage with disgusting themes and the experience of
disgust. The concluding discussion will evaluate the possibilities and
limitations of disgust for a nuanced understanding of women?s
self-representation in a contemporary context and across cultures.
Key topics to be addressed include (but are not limited to) the following:
- Disgust at the female body: sexuality, pregnancy, menstruation.
- How and why do writers seek to provoke disgust in their readers?
- Disgust as a metaphor for social, political, or existential anxieties.
- Disgust as a response to injustice.
- Graphic depictions of bodily fluids and emissions.
- Excessive or grotesque corporeality.
- Human vs. animal disgust.
- The abject body.
- Disgusting depictions of suffering: moral vs. physical disgust.
- Representations of death and decay.
- To what extent do contemporary women writers reproduce or challenge
or otherwise engage critically with misogynistic stereotypes of disgust?
Two speakers are already confirmed from French and German studies:
Katie Jones (French & Francophone Studies, Nottingham): ?Towards a
feminist aesthetics of disgust? Amélie Nothomb, Marie Darrieussecq,
Charlotte Roche?
Elizabeth Boa (German Studies, Nottingham): ?Lust or Disgust? The
Blurring of Boundaries in Karen Duve?s Regenroman?
We are looking for two further papers from any of French, German,
Italian, Hispanic and Portuguese/Brazilian Studies.
Proposals should be sent by 15 March 2013 to Katie Jones
([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>)
and Gill Rye ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>);
expressions of interest are encouraged in the meantime.
http://www.igrs.sas.ac.uk/centre-study-contemporary-womens-writing
http://www.igrs.sas.ac.uk/
----- End forwarded message -----
--
Dr Adalgisa Giorgio
Senior Lecturer in Italian Studies
Italian Language Convenor
Coordinator Incoming Erasmus Students, English Language
Assistantships, Italian Year Abroad
Chair University Equality & Diversity Network
Department of Politics, Languages and International Studies
University of Bath
Claverton Down
Bath BA2 7AY - UK
Tel: 0044 (0) 1225 386171
Office Number: 1WN 2.3
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