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italian-studies: Scholarly discussions in any field of Italian studies Dear List Members, please consider sending contributions to the following CFP for the Canadian Association of Italian Studies Conference in Orvieto. *Buon 2019!* Samuele Grassi and Luigi Gussago ***** *Orvieto 2019* * Call for Papers (Session) * *"Ogni gioco esige solo distaccata soavità": Games, Toys And Play Ethic In Italian Culture. A Multidisciplinary Panel* From nuclear deterrence to Gamblers Anonymous support groups, play and games have permeated aspects as disparate as economics, political strategy, philosophy, education, esoteric, etc. Games impose rules, but also encourage ways to sidestep them; at the same time, they exalt the players’ super-ego, or simply their capacity to deceive and bluff. Games are often sublimations of violence and power struggles (e.g. chess, card games, Risiko, World of Warcraft, etc.). They may relate to courtship and sexuality, upsetting gender roles between antagonists. Toys are also symbolically charged objects: they may remind of a traumatic childhood, sexual innuendos, social differences, evoke a suspended state between life and death, reconcile humans with their physicality, and so forth. A universal form of behaviour among human and non-human animals, game and play are moments of initiation to a competitive life, but they are also expression of equality, suppression of distances, re-direction of violent instincts, harmony with the human and more-than-human agencies. This panel invites contributions on game, toys, play and gambling in Italian culture from a variety of disciplines, including, but not limited to: - Literature; - Gender Studies; - Ecocriticism and Environmental Humanities; - Anthropology; - Language Learning; - Comparative Studies; - Material Cultural Studies; - Media Studies, etc. The contributions will help identify the concept of ‘play ethic’, and how games reflect alternative ethical purposes. Please send a 250-word proposal and a 50-word biography to the following email addresses: Dr Samuele Grassi: [log in to unmask] Dr Luigi Gussago: [log in to unmask] Closing Date for Receiving Proposals for this Session: *28 February 2019* Kind regards. ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: subscribe italian-studies YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: unsubscribe italian-studies to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/italian-studies