ESSE-10 CONFERENCE Torino, Italy, 24-28 August 2010
Theseminar, entitled "History and Literary Journalism" is currentlyseeking submissions from IALJS and ESSE members that respond to the followingtopic:
Historyand literary journalism are seemingly fraternal twins separated at birth: oneseeking to recover the past, the other striving to capture the present, and bothcommitted to preserving a “truth” for posterity. Though they share a doggedbelief in (re)presenting the facts of a given event, both vary in theirconceptions of how that event should be documented. Historians believe that thepassage of time and critical distance favors objectivity, whereas literaryjournalists advocate contemporaneous coverage through firsthand, immersivereporting. And yet, despite their differences, both mirror the other's creed: aliterary journalist views history as it is happening, or has recently happened,in order to reconstruct the scenes of that event accurately, while a historiantypically strips the event of its emotion and drama in pursuit of a moretraditional journalistic representation of a past event. This seminar proposesto study how and where literary journalism/journalists and history/historianscross disciplines and ideologies, and why academia still prefers that latter tothe former as being a more faithful rendering of the past.
Submissionsin the form of an abstract of 300-500 words (with a short cv attached) shouldbe sent to John Bak (John.Bak@univ-nancy2.fr)and to David Abrahamson, IALJS President (d-abrahamson@northwestern.edu) by 31 January 2010.
Pleasenote the following information about ESSE 10:
http://www.unito.it/esse2010/home/index.php?contenuto=home