italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
Dear list members,
I would like to bring your attention on this CFP.
Best wishes.
Giacomo Comiati
ITALY MADE IN ENGLAND
Contemporary British Perspectives on Italian Culture
University of Warwick, Saturday 22nd February 2014
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/hrc/confs/imie/
‘The Italy perceived by the British travellers is – at the least – “half-
created” by them. Or, to put it in less romantic and more fashionable terms: it
is a construction, an “Italy made in England” - M. Pfister, The Fatal Gift of
Beauty: The Italies of British Travellers
This conference aims to bring together scholars and specialists from a wide
range of disciplines to answer the following critical questions: why does an
Anglophone audience overlook some aspects of Italian culture whilst engaging
keenly with others ? What are the reasons for this selection? How is Italy
perceived within global culture, and indeed, how many and what kinds of Italies
circulate today? From the Renaissance image of Italy as a pinnacle of culture
to the modern-day ‘sick man of Europe’ how is Italy looked at from a British
perspective? Are these “postcards of Italy” stereotyped, do they respond to the
eternal cliché of the unmanageable land of corruption (from the Borgia to
Berlusconi)? Is the British view on Italy a colonial one? How do the British
behave when appropriating images of Italy and spreading them? And again: is the
extremely peculiar history and position of Italy considered by British
audience? Is the debt due to several Italian thinkers (such as Machiavelli,
Vico, Gramsci) recognized? In asking these questions we hope to probe wider
questions about the nature of audience recepting Italy’s images and the (mis)
fortunes of Italian culture beyond national boundaries in today’s world. The
discussion about these themes might also prove to be an essential occasion of
auto-reflection for people teaching and researching in Italian Studies: which
images of Italy do we convey in our departments? Does it correspond to reality
or does it resemble an old-fashioned movie? And how do we make sure that our
students get an appropriate Italian experience?
We plan to publish the proceedings of this conference in a peer-reviewed
edited volume.
Confirmed keynote speakers: Prof Donald Sassoon (History, Queen Mary,
University of London) and Bill Emmott (author of Good Italy, Bad Italy and co-
creator of the documentary Girlfriend in a Coma).
We invite proposals for papers from researchers in Comparative Literature,
History, Philosophy, Film Studies, Art History and Translation Studies, as well
as Italian Studies. Possible topics include but are by no means limited to:
- The Italian Renaissance and Middle Ages’ enduring position as the pinnacle
of Italian artistic and literary production;
- The contemporary Italian ‘canon’ in Britain: which texts are selected for
translation and what makes a bestseller; which texts are selected for teaching
and the reaction of students (contributions addressing teaching practice are
welcome);
- Italian philosophers within today’s mainstream (e.g. Machiavelli, Agamben);
- The Italian contribution to theory although sometimes underestimated or
subterranean (e.g., Gramsci and postcolonial studies);
- The Anglophone fascination with the Mafia and criminal orgnisations in
general and their recent depictions in books and films (e.g. Gomorra, Romanzo
criminale, John Dickie’s book and his recent documentary The Mafia’s Secret
Bunkers);
- Recent TV series popular in Britain that are made in or are about Italy (e.
g. The Borgias, Inspector Montalbano).
Please send abstracts of no more than 300 words and a short biography to
[log in to unmask] The final deadline for abstracts is 30th
September 2013.
Organisers:
Giacomo Comiati (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/italian/staff/comiati/),
Martina Piperno (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/italian/staff/piperno/)
Kate Willman (http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/arts/italian/staff/willman/).
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