Reminder: Imagining Europe - Perspectives, Perceptions and Representations from Antiquity to the Present
Coen Maas
c.maas at HUM.LEIDENUNIV.NL
Sun Oct 10 13:34:12 UTC 2010
IMAGINING EUROPE - PERSPECTIVES, PERCEPTIONS AND REPRESENTATIONS
FROM ANTIQUITY TO THE PRESENT
REMINDER: CALL FOR PAPERS - LUICD Graduate Conference 2011
Leiden University Institute for Cultural Disciplines
27 and 28 January 2011
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Professor Edith Hall, Royal Holloway, University of London
Professor Jonathan Israel, Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton University
THE CONFERENCE
‘Qui parle Europe a tort. Notion géographique’. Otto von Bismarck's elliptic
remark, scribbled in the margin of a letter from Alexander Gorchakov in 1876,
would go on to become one of the most often-quoted statements about
Europe. But was Bismarck right? Is Europe nothing but a geographical notion?
Even the briefest glance at history shows that more often than not
perceptions and definitions of Europe go beyond the mere geographical
demarcation of a continent. In 1919, for instance, Paul Valéry imagined Europe
as a living creature, with ‘a consciousness acquired through centuries of
bearable calamities, by thousands of men of the first rank, from innumerable
geographical, ethnic and historical coincidences’. Of course this is only one of
a multitude of different representations. Europe has always signified different
things to different people in different places – inside Europe as well as outside.
Europe meant, for instance, something different to Voltaire, l’aubergiste
d’Europe, at Ferney in the 1760s than to Athanasius Kircher in Rome a century
earlier or to Barack Obama in Washington today.
This conference explores the different ways in which Europe has been
imagined and represented, from inside as well as outside Europe and from
classical antiquity to the present day. This wide scope reflects the historical
range of the LUICD’s three research programmes (Classics and Classical
Civilization, Medieval and Early Modern Studies and Modern and Contemporary
Studies) as well as the intercontinental focus of many of the institute’s
research projects. The conference aims to present a diachronic perspective of
some of the many images of Europe, with particular attention to the historical,
cultural and economic contexts in which these images were created and the
media and genres in which they have been presented.
Although the emphasis of the conference lies on different and changing
perspectives, perceptions and representations, it also wants to explore the
notion of similarity – are there any aspects that keep recurring in the different
visions, aspects that might even be said to be intrinsically European?
The conference aims to provide a platform for graduate students in the
humanities, from Leiden as well as other universities in the Netherlands and
abroad, to present and exchange their ideas in an international and
interdisciplinary environment. The organising committee is honoured that
Professor Jonathan Israel and Professor Edith Hall have accepted our invitation
to act as keynote speakers and participate in discussions during the
conference.
PROPOSALS
The LUICD Graduate Conference aims to reflect the institute’s interdisciplinary
and international character and as such welcomes proposals from graduate
students from all disciplines within the humanities, from universities from the
Netherlands as well as abroad. The conference wants to present a variety of
different perspectives on Europe (from within as well as outside the European
continent) and those working in fields related to other continents are
particularly encouraged to submit a proposal.
Subjects may include historical events, processes and discourses, textual
and/or visual representations, literary or art canons, colonial and post-colonial
relations, philosophical developments and political issues. Questions that could
be raised include: how did (and do) oppositions such as barbarism versus
civilization, Christianity versus paganism or old versus new worlds relate to the
conceptualization of Europe? What role does (perceived) cultural superiority
play in these oppositions? What ideas might be regarded as predecessors of or
alternatives to the concept of Europe? In what ways did (and do) forms of
universalism and regionalism compete with identity formation on a continental
level? How have individual artists represented Europe? How do different
(literary) genres, such as travel literature, historiography or letters, construct
a particular image of Europe or Europe’s relations with other cultures? Is it
possible for art collections to imagine Europe or to question existing
perceptions of Europe? How do migrant literature and cinema reflect the
changing identity of Europe today?
Please send your proposal (max. 300 words) for a 20-minute paper to
C.Maas at hum.leidenuniv.nl . The deadline for the proposals is 1 November
2010 – you will be notified whether or not your proposal has been selected
before 15 November 2010.
After the conference, the proceedings will be published either on-line or in
book form. More information on this will follow in due course.
A conference website ( http://hum.leiden.edu/icd/imagining-europe ), with
more information about the programme, speakers, accommodation and other
conference matters, will be launched later this autumn, but if you have any
questions regarding the conference and/or the proposal, please do not
hesitate to contact us at the above e-mail address.
The organizing committee:
Drs. Thera Giezen
Drs. Jacqueline Hylkema
Drs. Coen Maas
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