Imperial Material: Napoleon’s Legacy in Culture, Art, and Heritage, 1821–2021
Online Workshop, 3 September 2021
Organising Committee:
Dr Matilda Greig (Cardiff University) and Dr Nicole Cochrane (University of Exeter)
Two hundred years after Napoleon Bonaparte's death, this online workshop confronts his vast material, visual, and cultural legacy. Please register here via Eventbrite to join us for a day full of exciting papers on the Napoleonic era in culture, art and heritage.
Programme (nb. all times are in British Standard Time (BST)).
10.00–10.15 Opening Remarks
10.15–11.10 Keynote – Napoleon: A Life Told in Gardens and Shadows, In Discussion – Dr Ruth Scurr (University of Cambridge)
11.10–11.30 Break
11.30–12.15 Panel 1 – National Responses
Vive L’Empereur!: Napoleon’s material legacy in Australia – Dr Emma Gleadhill (Macquarie University) and Dr Ekaterina Heath (University of Sydney)
Napoléon alla turca: the Ultimate European – Fezanur Karaağaçlıoğlu (Boğaziçi University)
12.15–13.00 Panel 2 – Politics of Iconography
Victory Shall Be Mine: the Form, Fate, and Fortune of the Vittoria di Fossombrone and Napoleon as Mars the Peacemaker – Dr Melissa Gustin (University of York)
Napoleon’s Iconography – Politics of Images and an ‘Imperial Corporate Design’? – Andrea Völker (Leuphana Universität Lüneburg)
13.00–14.00 Lunch
14.00–14.45 Panel 3 – Napoleon in the Museum
The Mysteries of Napoleon's Toothbrush – Harriet Wheelock (Royal College of Physicians of Ireland & TU Dublin)
Absence and Ubiquity in the Louvre’s Commemoration of Napoleonic art pillage – Nancy Karrels (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
14.45–15.30 Panel 4 – Representations on Stage and Screen
I, Napoleon: blurred boundaries in Napoleonic performance – Dr Laura O’Brien (Northumbria University)
The Emperor’s New Close-Up: Napoleon’s Enduring Impact on Contemporary Film as an Iconic Historical Brand – Dr Aidan Moir (York University)
15.30–16.00 Break
16.00–16.45 Panel 5 – Objects from the Sacred to the Mundane
From Mania to Relics: The Artefacts of the 1890 Waterloo Panorama – Dr Luke Reynolds (University of Connecticut)
The Relics of Napoleon and Modern Memory – Prof David O’Brien (University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign)
16.45–17.30 Panel 6 – Urban and Cultural Legacies
Perpetual Erasure: Napoleonian Politics and the Cemetery – Dr Kaylee P. Alexander (Guilford College)
The Legacy of the Napoleonic Era on Hairstyle and Hairdressing – Hervé Boudon (Independent scholar)
17.30–17.45 Closing Remarks.