Please forward: CfP Bruno Schulz Conference

[Kris Van Heuckelom]

- Call for Papers -

International Conference "The World of Bruno Schulz/Bruno Schulz and the World: Influences, Similarities, Reception" (Leuven, May 25-26, 2007)

The Research Unit of Slavonic and East European Studies at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (Belgium), the Department of Slavonic and East European Studies at the Universiteit Gent (Belgium) and the Section of Slavic Languages and Literatures at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium) are pleased to announce the International Conference "The World of Bruno Schulz/Bruno Schulz and the World: Influences, Similarities, Reception". The Conference will take place on the Faculty of Arts campus in Leuven, Belgium, May 25-26, 2007.

As Stanislaw Eile (1996) has argued, the difficulty with Bruno Schulz's prose is that "the extensive use of figurative language renders the message rather confusing and consequently open to a variety of esoteric readings, which often demonstrate the inventiveness of critics rather than representing a convincing explication of the text". According to Krzysztof Stala (1993), too many critics limit themselves to "some fragmentary, marginal reading, being rather aware of the inexhaustibleness of Schulz's prose than trying to define this inexhaustibleness, domesticate it with some proposal richer than 'expression of the inexpressible'". Because of the difficulty to find a stable interpretative horizon in Schulz's texts themselves, it has been a popular critical strategy to compare his confusing literary output to an ever increasing number of well- and less-known writers and literary trends. It remains unclear, however, to which extent this profusion of comparisons has lead to a better understanding of Schulz's literary world. If Schulz is comparable to almost any modern writer, what is then still so special about his writings?

The aim of the conference is to explore the limits of the comparability of Schulz's works. We welcome contributions from a variety of methodological approaches and on any topic relating to this problem. Papers dealing also with Schulz's graphic and epistolary output are strongly encouraged. Possible topics include: influences (direct and indirect influences on Schulz's writings; Schulz's influence on contemporary literature, theatre, film, plastic arts, etc.), similarities (typological similarities between Schulz's and other authors' writings; intertextuality and its limits; precipitate associations which turn out to be exaggerated upon closer examination, etc.), reception (critical reception of Schulz's writings throughout the world; Schulz's position in a certain national tradition; problems connected with translating Schulz; misunderstandings due to mistranslations, etc.) 'Forgotten' names, trends and traditions include: (German or Polish) periodicals, series and publications of a pornographic or esoteric nature, Polish authors (J. Slowacki, Z. Krasinski, B. Lesmian, etc.), the literature of the Dual Monarchy (A. Kubin, R.M. Rilke, and many others writing in German, Yiddish or Czech from Drohobycz or the rest of Galicia, Prague or Vienna, etc.), European authors (Th. Mann, J.K. Huysmans, J.P. Jacobsen, etc.), Russian authors (19th-century writers from N. Gogol to A. Chekhov, etc.)

Each paper will be allowed twenty minutes. Discussions at the end of each session will be introduced by specialized discussants, who are expected to assess each paper in advance and to critically summarize its main arguments. The ulterior aim of the conference is a book publication. The deadline for proposals is October 31, 2006. One page abstracts are expected by November 30, 2006. Notifications of the Organizing Committee's decisions will be sent out by January 2007. Papers accepted for the conference have to be submitted one month in advance in order to allow discussants to prepare their contribution.

Presentations preferably are in English, in order to open the conference up to researchers working mainly on other national literatures. Exceptions will be made for those speakers who feel more comfortable when speaking in Polish. In order to facilitate selection, assessment and publication of the papers, however, all proposals, abstracts and papers should be in English. We strongly encourage the use of modern presentation software, e.g. Powerpoint. The goal of this is to enhance the effectiveness of the presentation and to facilitate discussion afterwards. Laptops and beamers will be provided.

For details or questions, please contact the members of the Organizing Committee: Kris Van Heuckelom (kris.vanheuckelom at arts.kuleuven.be) or Dieter De Bruyn (dieter.debruyn at ugent.be).

More details about the conference will appear at: http://www.arts.kuleuven.be/slavic/schulz/firstcall.htm.


Disclaimer: http://www.kuleuven.be/cwis/email_disclaimer.htm


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