1920-2020: A century of words and images telling the story of amnesia
International Conference
22-24 September 2020, Urbino (University of Urbino Carlo Bo)
Degenerative illness, pain and death pose bio-ethical problems that cannot be tackled by medical science alone. Literary, multimodal and cinematic texts can also provide new, promising and complex perspectives on the ethical dilemmas connected to these facts of life, and may be vital to our understanding of their full implications. The creative presentation and re-elaboration of illness is a function of the human need to provide collective answers to the questions it asks of each individual – and it may go a long way towards promoting a much-needed debate on the topic, as well as a series of interdisciplinary exchanges between such diverse academic fields as bioethics, cognitive science, cultural theory, literary criticism, visual culture and linguistics.
The theme of the conference is the literary, multimodal and audiovisual representation of memory loss in all its forms – whether caused by neurological conditions (e.g. Alzheimer’s or other kinds of dementia) or by personal and/or historical trauma. The organizing committee welcomes contributions on the cultural and linguistic manifestations of memory loss with reference to the classical world as well as Italy, the English- and French-speaking worlds, Germany and Russia. In the artistic and literary domains, researchers are invited to work on the stylistic and rhetorical strategies employed by artists and writers to describe, narrate and present oblivion. In linguistic terms, the focus is on the verbal or iconic item as a symptom of memory loss.
LINES OF RESEARCH
In view of all the above, the Conference organizers propose to explore all questions related to memory loss in two main directions – one having to do with literary, visual and audiovisual narratives, the other with the linguistic dynamics of amnesia.
All speakers are expected to conform to one or both of these lines of research. No proposal will be accepted that has no direct bearing on the main theme of the conference and these two lines.
Line 1 – LITERARY, VISUAL AND AUDIOVISUAL WORKS – All papers must discuss works published or released in the last century in Italian, English, French, German and Russian, with possible reference to classical cultural models. They must investigate the following phenomena: 1) memory loss caused by neuro-physiological degenerative illnesses (e.g. Alzheimer’s); 2) post-traumatic amnesia and psychological erasure (including allomnesia and memory illusions), due to historical events (the two World Wars, the Shoah, international terror, migration) and/or to personal vicissitudes (illnesses, accidents, bereavement). The perspective can be either diachronic (the evolution of the problem, of its representation or self-representation) or synchronic (different contemporary presentations of the problem). Novels, autobiographies and autofictions, poems, graphic literature, songs, films, TV series and stage plays/theatrical productions are all viable analytical objects. One of the principal aims of the investigation is analyzing, not least from an anthropological point of view, all the analogies and differences which obtain in the representation of memory loss in different cultural contexts, and the ways in which the same narrative and/or symbolic pattern may be employed (synchronically and/or diachronically) in different situations: one need only think of the functional evolution of the Oedipus myth in contemporary culture, with the transformation of the theme of ignorance and guilt into that of the traumatic erasure of the very memory of guilt – also thanks to the synchronic filter of the psycho-analytical rereading of the myth.
Line 2 – LINGUISTIC INVESTIGATIONS – Starting from a corpus of literary, multimodal and audiovisual texts which foreground the theme of memory loss, the proposed contributions must proceed to explore the linguistic levels (syntactic, lexical, morphological, discursive, suprasegmental) at which the symptoms and consequences of memory loss are most in evidence, as well as observe the compensating linguistic strategies employed by fictional sufferers. Contrastively, the contributions will compare the findings thus obtained with the linguistic production of real patients with aphasia, Alzheimer’s and other conditions and illnesses, with the general purpose of showing how fiction, by helping to modify the perception of amnesia and memory loss, can produce both individual and collective resilience (in its figurative, interpretive, curative or even cathartic dimensions). Fictional words and images are thus important in terms of cultural awareness, recovery, and the integrity of the self, but also because they show the impact that post-traumatic amnesia and neurodegenerative illnesses have on the preservation of cultural memory (in this sense, the cases of war veterans, Holocaust survivors and, more recently, of the victims of terror attacks or of displaced persons are all exemplary).
SENDING A PROPOSAL
Deadline: 30 April 2020
Acceptance/Refusal: 30 May 2020
Languages: Italian, English, French, German, Spanish
Every proposal must contain the following: A) title; B) abstract (maximum length: 1200 characters including spaces; C) biosketch (max 10 lines); D) indication of line of research (1/2).
The scientific committee will verify the appropriateness of each proposal with regard to the topic and methodological structure of the conference. All proposed contributions must be about the themes expounded above, articulating their arguments in an interdisciplinary, interdiscursive or intermedial perspective, and with reference to one of the cultures and geographical domains mentioned above.
The programme of the conference will appear before the end of July 2020 on the site www.amnesiedautore.it. The contributions will be published in a refereed volume.
SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE
Giulia Affede (Università di Urbino)
Margareth Amatulli (Università di Urbino)
Alessandra Calanchi (Università di Urbino)
Giovanna Carloni (Università di Urbino)
Roberto Danese (Università di Urbino)
Riccardo Donati (Università di Salerno)
Gloria Cocchi (Università di Urbino)
Claus Ehrhardt (Università di Urbino)
Giuseppe Ghini (Università di Urbino)
Sergio Guerra (Università di Urbino)
Maryline Heck (Université de Tours)
Brian Hurwitz (King’s College London)
Massimiliano Morini (Università di Urbino)
Aurélie Moioli, (Université Nice Sophia Antipolis)
Cristina Pierantozzi (Università di Urbino)
Flora Sisti (Università di Urbino)
Salvatore Ritrovato (Università di Urbino)
Shawn Wong (University of Washington)
ORGANIZING COMMITTEE
Giulia Affede (Università di Urbino)
Emilio Campagnoli (Università di Urbino)
Giovanna Carloni (Università di Urbino)
Sergio Guerra (Università di Urbino)
Cristina Pierantozzi (Università di Urbino)
CONTACTS: amnesiedautore@uniurb.it