Relational Forms III. Imagining Europe: Wars, Territories, Identities. Representations in Literature and the Arts

Relational Forms III. Imagining Europe: Wars, Territories, Identities. Representations in Literature and the Arts

This conference is directly prompted by a commemoration: the bicentennial of the battle of Waterloo. It is a commonplace to state that the events of June 1815 proved a watershed in European history, redrawing the map of the continent and much of what came in its wake. We want to consider this, however, alongside other instances of conflict that have proved momentous in European history, including other 'fifteens' prior to Waterloo – e.g. Agincourt and Ceuta (1415), the 1st Jacobite rising (1715); and, crucially, the conference will focus on the imaginative consequences of such events, especially in literature and the arts.

In sum: the conference avails itself of a commemorative design to consider the consequences that a history of conflict(s) in Europe has had, within imaginative production, for an ongoing refashioning of perceived identities. We want to showcase and discuss the impact of such processes on literary and artistic representations, preferably from a comparatist perspective.

As indicated by the number in its title, this conference is the third in a series of academic events that reflect the ongoing concerns of the eponymous research group (Relational Forms), based at CETAPS (the Centre for English, Translation and Anglo-Portuguese Studies).

The organisers will welcome proposals for 20-minute papers in English responding to the above. Suggested (merely indicative) topics include:

• Europe, conflict and the imagination

• terrible beauties: European wars in literature and the arts

• rout and road: narratives of disaster and displacement

• poetry and battlefields, self and community

• reviewing the massacre: verbal and visual reenactments of war scenarios

• conflict, identity, translation: representations across media / across languages

• drama, war and Europe: 'a nation thinking in public...'

• shooting Europe: film, war and memory

Confirmed keynote speakers:

António Sousa Ribeiro (University of Coimbra)

Donna Landry (University of Kent)

Philip Shaw (University of Leicester)

Submissions should be sent by email to relational@letras.up.pt

Please include the following information with your proposal:

• the full title of your paper;

• a 250-300 word description of your paper;

• your name, postal address and e-mail address;

• your institutional affiliation and position;

• a short bionote;

• AV requirements (if any)

Deadline for proposals: 15 July 2015

Notification of acceptance: 31 July 2015

Deadline for registration: 15 October 2015

Registration Fee: 80 Euros

Student fee: 65 Euros

Registration details will be posted online in September 2015