New Perspectives on an Old Concept

 



3-day International Conference
Leiden, May 31 – June 1, 2012

Organizing institutions: Leiden University (Netherlands) & The University of Bonn (Germany)Organizers: Prof. Dr. Christian Moser (Bonn) & Dr. Maria Boletsi (Leiden)



Keynote speakers

• Terry Eagleton (Lancaster University) “The Barbarian in the Citadel”
  (May 31, 16:30; Academiegebouw, Groot Auditorium)
• François Hartog (EHESS Paris): “The Greeks, the Barbarians, the Others in the antiquity and beyond”
  (May 30, 13:30; Academiegebouw, Klein Auditorium)
•  Natalie Melas (Cornell University) “Barbarian Conversions: Nature, Form and the Primitive Within”                        
  (May 31, 11:30; Academiegebouw, Klein Auditorium)

Admission to the keynote lectures is free. For more information, please contact the conference organizers at barbarism.revisited@gmail.com. The conference program can be found at http://hum.leiden.edu/icd/news-events/barbarism-revisited.html

The notion of “barbarism” and the figure of the “barbarian” have captivated the Western imagination and been a constant part of our vocabulary since Greek antiquity. In the age-old opposition between civilized and barbarian, the “barbarian” supports the superiority of those who assume the status of the “civilized.” “Barbarism” reinforces the discourse of “civilization” by functioning as its antipode. Today, both terms figure prominently in political rhetoric, the media, historiography, and everyday speech, and their use carries an air of self-evidence: there appears to be a silent consensus on what barbarism means or who a barbarian is. However, while the persistence of the civilization / barbarism opposition in Western history indicates the power and violence of this binary mode of thinking, the “barbarian” also carries different stories. These stories involve reversals of the hierarchy between civilized and barbarian; instances of critique and renegotiation of the concept of barbarism; attempts to recast the “barbarian” in positive terms, as a force of renewal of a decaying civilization; and reconceptualizations of barbarism as a discursive challenge to predominant modes of exercising political power. 

This conference brings together a wide range of perspectives on barbarism and the figure of the barbarian, in order to reclaim the complexity and versatility of these notions, revisit their genealogy, chart their diverse meanings and uses in history and in the present, and tease out their critical thrust. The scope of this conference is simultaneously broad and very specific: it aims to stimulate interdisciplinary dialogues on the “barbarian,” while putting the emphasis on the specificity of this category, as it intersects, overlaps, or clashes with other categories of otherness. By zooming in on the barbarian, we wish to follow its travels across historical periods, cultural contexts, discourses, genres, media, and disciplinary fields; follow the cultural and political implications of its various uses and abuses; place “barbarism” or the “barbarian” in unfamiliar discursive constellations; interrogate the binary opposition in which these concepts are implicated; and discuss new meanings and creative or dangerous uses of the “barbarian” today.

What insights can we gain by retracing the uses of barbarism in history? What could be the implications of revisiting barbarism and its genealogy for our contemporary cultural and social realities? Can the concept contribute to, and critically intervene in, current debates on globalization, postnationalism, multiculturalism, post-sovereignty, and communication models?

How do subjects that are labeled as “barbarians” “hijack” the trope of the barbarian from dominant discourses and use it in their own subversive and critical projects? How can we listen to the “noise” of “barbarian” others, allowing it to take effect in our own languages?

Can barbarism intervene in our discursive frameworks and inspire new modes of knowing and theorizing, as well as alternative (inter)disciplinary practices and methodologies that can help us rethink our roles as scholars?



Call for Papers

Interdisciplinary research colloquium from March 1st -2nd, 2013, to be held at the University of Münster

Deadline for Abstracts: 30 June 2012

The concept of travel is often associated with far away places, the exotic and a confrontation with an ‘other’. However, travel has also taken (and still takes) place on a smaller scale, for example, in a neighbouring country or region that does not appear so “different” at first. Despite their national borders, the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, Switzerland and Austria constituted an area that was closely entangled economically, politically and socially throughout the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century. Their network of connections is manifested in specific travel movements that crosscut German and Dutch-speaking regions.

The colloquium aims to take a dual approach to these travel routes: Travelling will be conceptualised as a cultural practice within its historical context; and, it will be considered through the textual practice of travel writing. Travelling as a cultural practice entails the physical act of travelling, as this becomes embedded in its cultural aspects: travel organisations and agents, the means of transport and travel accessories, the contextualisation of travelling as social (e.g., travel as a status symbol), cultural (e.g., travelling clothes) and historical (e.g., the First World War as a stimulus for increased travel). Research concerning travel as a cultural practice might turn towards tourism, ethnology and anthropology for insight into how travel is comprised of actions that are embedded in a cultural and historical context and how these actions have become associated with social, communicative and ideological values. In addition to filmic presentations, the textual practice of writing about travelling encompasses a multitude of texts such as the travelogue, travel report, travel narrative, travel guide and travel novel. This breadth introduces the problem of genre borders within this corpus of texts. On a textual level travelling can become the driving force behind narration in different ways: through the various methods of textual presentation, travelling can provide momentum when it develops into a textual practice that exceeds a pure rendition of the experienced dynamic of travelling.

The following analytical categories provide general parameters for both historico-cultural perspectives and literary perspectives:

I. Images of self and ‘other’

II. Dynamic space

III. Individuality vs. collectivity

IV. Travel on the micro and macro levels

V. Simulated travel

The conference will be held in English and German.
More information (also in German)

Keynote speakers et al.: Prof. Dr. Tim Youngs (Professor of English and Travel Studies/Nottingham: Centre for Travel Writing Studies); Dr. Alison E. Martin (Assistant Professor/Halle: English, German and Dutch Travel writing, 18th and 19th centuries)

Please send your abstracts (ca. 300 words) to travel.writing@uni-muenster.de by 30 June 2012.

Organisation:

• Prof. Dr. Lut Missinne (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster)
• Prof. Dr. Herbert van Uffelen (Universität Wien)
• Dr. Hans Vandevoorde (Vrije Universiteit Brussel)
• Dr. Tom Sintobin (Radboud Universiteit Nijmegen)
• Beatrix van Dam M.A. (Westfälische Wilhelms-Universität Münster)

Life Writing Workshop

Date: 28-29 September 2012
Venue: Tilburg University, Netherlands
Organiser: Programme Literature and Visual Art in the European Public Sphere, Department of Culture Studies, Tilburg University

In this two-day workshop on life writing we shall explore representations of the self and constructions of identity in contemporary autobiographical texts and cultural products ranging from literary autobiographies and visual art to performances and portrayals of the self in documentaries, interviews, films, and digital media.

We invite scholars and researchers from the fields of literature, visual art, culture studies, history, ethnography, anthropology, and philosophy to explore representations of the self. The focus of this workshop is on the translation of personal experience to the represented or imagined story, publicly performed or otherwise made open to the view of all. Relevant questions are: How, and for what purpose, is the story effective? Who are the public/audience and what is their relationship to autobiographical products and their producers? Are audience members passive recipients or active negotiators, shapers, and creators of meaning and thus of the represented autobiographical identity? What expressive techniques are used to ‘translate’ and mediate personal experience? In what ways do different media combine to create new discourses of the self? We encourage submissions on topics such as: public confessions, the represented self in painting, film, and documentary, constructions of identity in digital story-telling, auto-ethnography.

Workshop papers will be made available to all participants on a password-protected website prior to the event so that they can be read in advance. Papers should be between 4000-5000 words. In the workshop each participant will be allocated a 30-minute slot, consisting of a brief presentation by the speaker (5-10 minutes) followed by discussion of the paper.

Please send abstracts of no more than 250 words to Dr Sanna Lehtonen, s.j.lehtonen@uvt.nl. Abstracts should be accompanied by a brief biographical statement (max 150 words).

Deadline for abstracts: April 30, 2012
Deadline for submission of full papers: August 1, 2012

The submitters of abstracts will be notified of acceptance or refusal by the end of May 2012.

Locatie: Huygens ING (Gebouw Koninklijke Bibliotheek, Den Haag)
Datum: 1 juni 2012
Tijd: 13:00 tot 17:30

Iedereen is recensent. Was het publiceren van een openbare mening over restaurants, films of boeken tot voor kort voorbehouden aan professionele critici, nu kan iedereen kritieken schrijven. Voor de literaire kritiek betekent dat een verschuiving van  de nadruk van professionele naar amateurkritiek. Op tal van sites (Recensieweb, forumsites, Twitter, bol.com) geven lezers meningen over literaire teksten. Die meningen kunnen betrekking hebben op in boekvorm gepubliceerde literatuur maar ook op teksten van amateurs gepubliceerd op gedichtensites. Dankzij deze lezersreacties is plotseling een grote hoeveelheid data ter beschikking gekomen om empirisch receptie-onderzoek mogelijk te maken.

In het Nederlandse taalgebied houden verschillende onderzoekers zich met deze digitale receptie bezig. De doelstelling van het seminar ‘Vind ik leuk!’ is onderlinge afstemming van de onderzoeksplannen. Daarbij denken we aan bespreking van

• onderzoeksvragen
• toepasselijke methoden
• aanvragen in voorbereiding
• witte vlekken in het onderzoek
• mogelijke onderzoekspartners

‘Vind ik leuk!’ is een informele bijeenkomst waar geen wetenschappelijke papers worden gepresenteerd maar vooral gedachtenwisseling plaats heeft. Deelnemers zijn in elk geval: Karina van Dalen-Oskam (Huygens ING, UvA), Kasper Nijsen (Huygens ING), Ronald Soetaert (UGent), Thomas Vaessens (UvA), Marc Verboord (EUR), Joachim Vlieghe (UGent), Yra van Dijk (UvA), Peter Boot (Huygens ING).

De bijeenkomst is voor belangstellenden vrij toegankelijk. In verband met de catering is aanmelding bij congres@huygens.knaw.nl verplicht (liefst uiterlijk 25 mei). Wie zijn of haar eigen onderzoek kort wil presenteren wordt verzocht contact op te nemen met de organisatoren van de bijeenkomst, Yra van Dijk (Y.vanDijk@uva.nl) of Peter Boot (peter.boot@huygens.knaw.nl).

Voorlopig programma:

13:00 – Binnenkomst met koffie, broodjes
13:30 – 15:30 – Presentaties
15:30 – 16:30 – Discussie
16:30 – Borrel

THE PLACE OF TRANSLATION

‘A language is a place’ Elias Canetti once noted, thus intimating that languages are anchored in a bounded space, determined by the place(s) they inhabit. If language is place, one may suggest that place is also language. This apparently natural equation is necessarily complicated and questioned through translation. Crossing the territories of languages is inherent to the task of the translator as experiences must be communicated in other languages, transplanted and ultimately ‘displaced’.

Drawing on the notion that translation is a practice carrying both ethical and aesthetic imperatives, this special thematic issue invites contributions which explore the role of translation and the function of translators particularly in relation to the notion of ‘place’. How are the singularities attached to “place” (i.e. supposedly ‘essential’ and idiosyncratic notions linked to the identification of one’s territory, space, city, origins, roots, identity) imported, adopted, adapted, appropriated and reconfigured as they cross boundaries and trespass cultural and linguistic borders? Is translation somewhat limited to superficial and media-fuelled representation of place(s) copied uncritically? Does translation remove (‘displace’) the particularities of place in order to conform to the homogeneous discourse of a uniform global world or, on the contrary, do certain translation practices insist on remarking the existence of ‘difference’ through place? Does translation simply neutralize and ‘re-place’, or does it negotiate alternatives? Do utopian, hybrid, nostalgized, idealized, nonexistent (‘placeless’) places (ultimately, what kind of places?) emerge through translation?

Prompting critics to engage with the trans-disciplinary paradigm which underlies the field of translation studies, the issue seeks contributions that will broaden our understanding of the relation between translation and place through a variety of critical and cultural frameworks, also applied to language, discourse and literature, that have shaped our contemporary academic agendas (translation theories, post-modernism, post-colonialism, feminism, diaspora, globalization studies, place studies etc.).

Topics may include (but are not limited to):

- The translation of nations, regions and territories

- Translation and spatial practices: memorialization, architecture, rituals and performances

- Translation and cartography: remapping and renaming

- Translation and the narratives of location

- Translation and the exotic

- Translation and the autochthonous: translating dialects, representing native landscapes

- Translation and citizenship

- Translation, borders, contact zones and space(s) in between

- Translation, diaspora, migration and displacement

- Translation and the discourse of ethnicity and origins

We welcome interdisciplinary approaches, ranging across critical theory, literary and cultural studies, linguistics as well as other disciplines in the humanities. Contributors are advised to follow the journal’s submission guidelines and stylesheet. The deadline for article submissions is 30 September 2012. Articles should be sent as attachments

to: wordandtext2011@gmail.com

All submitted articles will be blind-refereed except when invited.

Accepted articles will be returned for post-review revisions by 28 October 2012 and are expected back in their final version by 5 November 2012.