Call for Papers
Uses and Abuses of Pastoral: Arcadia Re-visited
University of Oslo, 24-25 April, 2003
key-note speaker: Paul Alpers
Deadline for submission: 1st November, 2002
Although nearly a century ago W.B. Yeats suggested that "The Woods of Arcady are dead" recent scholarship as well as developments in urban architecture (suburban gated communities) and environmentalism, call for a reconsideration of pastoral as a theoretical concept and cultural institution. William Empsons almost all-encompassing definition of pastoral as putting the complex into the simple undoubtedly opened up the pastoral-definition to a more general use. In the aftermath of him scholars have, however, tried to limit the scope. In the 1990s pastoral poetics has been offered quite a lot of scholarly attention. Most notable among these is our key-note speaker Paul Alpers magisterial work What is Pastoral? (1996).
This workshop is centered on a reconsideration of pastoral and invites scholars from various disciplines to participate in a dialogue seeking to understand, but also to problematize, the ways in which thinking about and through pastoral can produce new and different readings of art (classical or contemporary) and culture. The modern debates on pastoral touch upon many essential questions concerning our understanding of artistic works in general, in particular through highliting issues like genre-theory, intertextuality, convention, allegory etc. The work-shop should therefore be of interest to more than the happy pastoral few.
Some main themes for the conference will be:
1. Re-visiting pastoral as a critical concept for the humanities
Difficulties and differences in definition; relevance to the understanding of genre theory; pastoral as a locus for interdisciplinarity; pastoral in relation to theoretical frameworks (marxism, cultural studies, reception studies, eco-criticism etc); pertinence or impertinence of a post-modern, post-humanistic pastoral mode.
2. Politics in/of Arcadia
Contextual and textual readings; pastoral and the court; allegories of power; politics of representation in pastoral works; sexual politics; pastoral and nation-building.
3. Pastoral and its publics
International and historical reception of pastoral; issues of patronage and performance; pastoral romance and the female reading public; the place of pastoral in Scandinavian tradition.
4. The dream of Arcadia
Pastoral and the dream of Arcadia; pastoral as a "universal" phenomenon or symptom; relationship between locus amoenus and philosophy; the golden age; pastoral and nature writing; pastoral and landscape painting; pastoral innocence and pastoral sexuality; Arcadia and architecture.
5. Intertextuality and pastoral aesthetics
Convention and originality; pastoral and literary filiation; pastoral at the crossroads between artifice and nature; pastoral and new media.
One-page abstracts for a 20 minute paper will be accepted in English, Swedish, Norwegian, and Danish on or before the 1st November 2002 (all papers should eventually be given in English). Participants should include briefly in the abstract the link between their own research and one or more of these themes. This information will not only ensure relevant dialogue among presenters and audiences, but also aid the organization of the eventual publication of article-length expansions of selected papers.
Contact info: Updated information about the conference and a registration form can be found on the work-shop web-page, http://www.hf.uio.no/kri/arcadia/workshop. For questions and queries contact Mathilde Skoie, by ordinary post (Department of Classics and Romance Studies, University of Oslo, Postboks 1007 Blindern, 0315 Oslo, Norway) or e-mail (mathilde.skoie@kri.uio.no).