Libertine Enlightenment Conference
University of Queensland - St. Lucia Campus
21-22 September 2001
Website: http://arts.uq.edu.au/cccs/events/libertin/
Invited speakers at the conference will be: Iain McCalman (ANU), Jonathan Mee (Oxford), Philippe Roger (EHESS, Paris), Patrick Wald Lasowski (Paris VIII), Kathleen Wilson (SUNY).
About the Conference:
The project of a conference on the libertine enlightenment was hatched by a group of scholars at the University of Queensland who have begun forming themselves into a research concentration in the history of sexuality. This group includes scholars whose primary fields are Asian, Australian, British, French, and Hispanic studies, both textual and historical. With the support of the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, this group has been seeking opportunities for collaborative research that crosses departmental boundaries.
When the Humanities Research Centre (Australian National University) announced that its theme for 2001 would be the enlightenment, we saw a compelling opportunity. With assistance from the French Embassy and the Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies, we have invited some leading French scholars who would not otherwise be part of the HRC's activities, and given them the opportunity to interact with prominent scholars in British studies who will this year be research fellows of the HRC. See the website for more details:
http://arts.uq.edu.au/cccs/events/libertine/
Call for Papers: Abstracts by 31 May 2001
It has long been almost impossible to discuss libertine practices without debating whether libertinism deserved to be considered a properly philosophical movement, or was merely an aggregation of unruly social and sexual practices. This controversy is not an ambiguity waiting to be resolved by more careful scholarship: it is itself a kind of intellectual artefact, a product of binary thinking which separates ideas from bodies, and the philosophical from the social. To the extent that, say, the "history of ideas" seeks to locate libertinism with respect to other schools of thought, the old problematic fails to be recast. And for the history of sexuality, libertinism usually exists as marginal practice alongside other marginal practices, which means that its conceptual underpinnings and implications are neglected. The libertine enlightenment has been chosen as a terrain in which to explore the material interdependence of philosophical talk and bodily practices. It is a domain par excellence in which to reflect on the nature of discourse, in Foucault's sense. And an opportunity to consider the historically circumstantial nature of modern notions of philosophy.
Here are some questions and topics, which we expect to discuss:
- the uses of libertine and libertinism as names.
- modes of (feminine) enlightenment.
- multiple enlightenments.
- libertine counter-enlightenments.
Our intention is to focus closely on the historical enlightenment as a Western European phenomenon of the eighteenth century. In 2001, the Enlightenment, as a singular term, can become a referential monument, often subject to opprobrium. But when enlightenment is opened out, undermined, or otherwise inflected by libertinism, it takes on rich qualities that have little to do with that stereotype. Our concern is to understand the range of historical events and practices, from dissident vulgarity to cynical refinement, that might be said to constitute libertine enlightenment.
Please send a 250 word abstract by 31 May 2001 to:
Professor Peter Cryle
School of Languages and Comparative Cultural Studies
University of Queensland,
St. Lucia, QLD 4072
AUSTRALIA
Ph: 61 7 3365 2669
Fax: 61 7 3365 2799
Email: p.cryle@mailbox.uq.edu.au
For details about registration contact:
Ms. Andrea Mitchell
Project Officer - Centre for Critical and Cultural Studies
7th Floor Duhig Tower
Social Sciences and Humanities Building
University of Queensland
St. Lucia. QLD 4072
Phone: 3365 7182
Fax: 3365 7184
Email: a.mitchell@mailbox.uq.edu.au