italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies
Dear colleagues,
Please see below for the next CCWW cross-cultural seminar.
The seminar is free and open to all, but please advise the Centre's
Director, Prof. Gill Rye, at
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> if you wish to attend.
Best wishes,
Adalgisa Giogio
----- Forwarded message from Gill Rye <[log in to unmask]> -----
Date: Tue, 18 Jun 2013 13:43:49 +0000
From: Gill Rye <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Reminder - Aesthetics of Disgust seminar -26 June
To: Gill Rye <[log in to unmask]>
(Apologies for cross-posting)
A reminder that the last CCWW cross-cultural seminar for the summer
term is on Wednesday 26 June 2013, 2.30-5 pm, room 243, Senate House,
University of London
The Aesthetics of Disgust: Revolting Bodies and Other Gruesome Things
in post-1990 Women's Writing
Convenor: 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, German and [Spanish, Portuguese 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.
Speakers:
Katie Jones (French, Nottingham): 'Towards a Feminist Aesthetics of
Disgust? Amélie Nothomb, Marie Darrieussecq, Charlotte Roche'
Nina Schmidt (German, Sheffield): '"[I]mmer so ekelhafte Gedanken"
['Always such disgusting thoughts'] - Illness, Death and the Female
Grotesque in Charlotte Roche's _Schossgebete_ [_Lap Prayers_]'
Emma Bond (Italian, St Andrews): 'Food Disgust in New Female
Intercultural Italian Writing'
Elizabeth Boa (Nottingham): 'Lust or Disgust? The Blurring of
Boundaries in Karen Duve's _Regenroman_'
Abstracts for all four papers are on the event's web page: see
http://events.sas.ac.uk/igrs/events/view/13606/The+Aesthetics+of+Disgust%3A+Revolting+Bodies+and+Other+Gruesome+Things+in+post-1990+Women%27s+Writing+%28CCWW+Seminar%29
All welcome. No charge. Please advise me at
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]> if you wish to attend.
The seminar series is linked to the Studies in Contemporary Women's
Writing book series - see
http://www.igrs.sas.ac.uk/sites/default/files/files/Research%20Centres/CCWW/SCWW%20Flyer%20(Effe).pdf
Professor Emerita Gill Rye,
Director, Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women's Writing,
Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies,
University of London,
Senate House,
Malet Street,
London WC1E 7HU,
U.K.
[log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>
----- 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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