L'ILLE organisera à Mulhouse du 10 au 12 mai 2012, un colloque international consacré à la thématique "Charles Dickens and Europe"
International conference on ‘Charles Dickens and Europe'
10-12 May 2012, Université de Haute-Alsace, Mulhouse, France
Scientific committee:
Professor Nathalie Jaëck (keynote speaker), Université Bordeaux III, France
Professor Dominic Rainsford (keynote speaker), Aarhus Universitet, Denmark
Professor Jeremy Tambling (keynote speaker), University of Manchester, UK
Dr. Maxime Leroy (organiser), Université de Haute-Alsace, France
This conference seeks to deepen our understanding of the relationship between Charles Dickens and Europe. Suggested areas of interest include but are not restricted to the following topics:
Papers might address Dickens's representation of European locations, like Paris in A Tale of Two Cities, Rome in Little Dorrit or the Swiss Alps in No Thoroughfare (both novel and play). What is the narrative/symbolic/semiotic significance of these places? How are they described? Can a geocritical approach to Dickens's fictional Europe be applied and what do we learn from it?
Contributions may also focus on the imagined Europe of individual characters, as well as that of society at large. The Continent represents a safe haven for fugitives like Hawk in Nicholas Nickleby, Haredale in Barnaby Rudge, or Edith and Mr Carker in Dombey and Son. For Pip in Great Expectations, Estella's links to Europe form part of her fascination. How do the characters of Little Dorrit revisit the Grand Tour and the British perception of Continental mores?
The relationship between Dickens's British culture and the culture that was available in mainland Europe, for instance, in France, Germany and Italy is also relevant. What signs are there in the texts of Dickens as a European writer, or of other European cultures changing his work? Does it make sense to consider Dickens as cosmopolitan? How do his approaches to European texts relate to those of, say, Lewes, or Carlyle, or Thackeray?
Readings of Dickens's correspondence and travel writing are also welcome. Does Dickens focus on people or on places? Do the images of Europe conveyed in Pictures from Italy differ from those in Little Dorrit? What critical importance should be given to his numerous visits to Europe and to his early stays in Italy (1844) and Switzerland (1846)? Imagology–as indeed reception theory–could also give us a greater insight into Dickens's relationship with his European readership/audience. Contributions on his public readings across the Continent are also welcome.
If you wish to contribute, please submit a 300-word proposal for a 20-mn presentation in English to maxime.leroy@uha.fr by 30 September 2011. Please include a short bio-bibliographical note. Publication of the conference proceedings is planned.
The conference is organised by the Institut de Recherche en Langues et Littératures Européennes (ILLE): www.ille.uha.fr