Napoleon Harlequin: Theatre and the Battle for Legitimacy, 1814-15 – 10 June 2019

Lecture by Professor Katherine Astbury

 Napoleon Harlequin:

Theatre and the Battle for Legitimacy, 1814-15

 6 -7.30pm, Monday 10 June 2019

Keynes Library, School of Arts, 43 Gordon Square. WC1H 0PD

The Birkbeck Eighteenth-Century Research Group is delighted to announce a forthcoming lecture by Kate Astbury, Professor of French Studies, University of Warwick.

After the allies entered Paris at the end of March 1814, the city witnessed a flood of pamphlets and prints denouncing Napoleon as ‘tyrant’, ‘monster’, ‘assassin’ and ‘comedian’. This final ‘crime’ might, at first sight, seem somewhat out of place but the battle for legitimacy that was taking place hinged on who had the greater claim to rule France, Napoleon or Louis XVIII. To accuse Napoleon of being a charlatan and an actor merely playing a part was to undermine his right to reign and it thus becomes a repeated element of royalist attacks on the person of the Emperor.  It would however, also be a weapon Napoleon’s supporters could turn to their advantage and this paper will outline the ways in which theatrical metaphor was used by both sides in 1814-15.

The lecture will be followed by questions, and drinks.

All are very welcome!

For further information, please contact Dr Ann Lewis: a.lewis@bbk.ac.uk

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CFP: The third culture? // Literature and Sociology – Deadline 22 April 2019

The third culture? // Literature and Sociology

University of Warwick (Coventry) – 14 June 2019

In 1985 Wolf Lepenies argued that sociology should be considered a ‘third culture’ arising between science and literature. Contemporary discourses and research, however, show us that sociology and literature have a long history of peculiar relatedness.

In 19th century Europe, sociology was considered both a competitor to and counterpart of literary study since consensus held that the two disciplines were best placed to analyse and depict the emerging industrial society. Figures like Balzac, Flaubert, Zola and Simmel hoped to merge literature and social science; while others (like Marx, Durkheim and Weber) drew inspiration from literary work in developing their early sociological masterpieces. Despite this history, the developing pan-European structure of knowledge with its prioritisation of empirical analysis prevented any extensive integration between the two fields (Longo 2015; Jacobsen, Drake et al. 2014; Wallerstein 2007).

 

This conference seeks to renew collaboration between sociology and literature by addressing their disciplinary intersections and coalescences.

 

From this starting point three inter-related dimensions emerge:

 

Firstly, that literature may serve as a heuristic tool for sociological analyses, providing, if not a simplistic ‘reflection’ of social reality, then at least a plausible description or anticipation of human actions and social contexts. In this way some fiction can be understood as social theory (as with Balzac, Dickens, Houellebecq and Saramago); while some sociological accounts can be understood as pieces of literature, with a ‘literary imagination’ underpinning many sociological works (as with Denzin and Richardson).

 

In terms of cross-fertilisations, literary study has a long history of mining sociological theories and methodologies for the analysis of literary texts (as with Marxist literary studies and World Literature). More recently this has led to a rich sub-discipline that correlates literary forms and socio-economic processes via the work of Bourdieu and others. Literary theory, for its own part, has had a distinct impact on contemporary sociology, with the work of Said, Spivak and Jameson featuring prominently in sociology’s global or postcolonial turn.

 

And finally, literary works have historically worked as agents to foster reflection and political action on contemporary social issues (as with the work of Sinclair, Roy and El Saadawi). In this way, the intersection between sociology and literature can be used to focus and reflect on social issues like migration, racism and exploitation, serving activist projects and stimulating interventions into public life.

By reflecting on the productivity of these strands, we aim also to trace the difficulties and erasures which inhere as disciplinary objects are shifted and reconstituted, while bridging disciplinary parochialisms and reframing social and cultural issues beyond the confines of the university.

 

Thematic sessions and presentation topics for this conference may include, but are not limited to:

  1. Theories of the intersections between sociology and literature
  2. Historical perspectives on the intersections between sociology and literature
  3. Sociological fiction
  4. Marxism and literature: contemporary perspectives
  5. Bourdieusian approaches to literary analysis
  • Uses of literature and sociology that stimulate interventions into public life.

 

Keynote speakers will be:

  • Professor Mariano Longo (Università del Salento – Italy)
  • Second keynote TBC

 

We welcome both proposals for individual papers (20 minutes) and panels (1 hour/ 3–4 papers) that encourage a reflection on these intersections. Please send either a 250-word abstract for an individual paper proposal or a panel proposal of 900 words and a short biography to thirdcultureconference@gmail.com by 22 April 2019. Panel proposals should contain a brief description of the topic of the panel as well as the 3–4 abstracts that constitute the panel. Individual abstracts will be allocated a panel after review. Applicants will be notified by 26 April 2019.

 

Delegates to the conference will be expected to fund their own travel and accommodation. Thanks to our sponsors – the ESRC-DTC (University of Warwick) and the Social Theory Centre (University of Warwick) – the registration to the conference is free.

 

More information on https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/esrcdtc/news/literaturesociology

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CFP: ASMI POSTGRADUATE SUMMER SCHOOL – Deadline 9 April 2018

University of Warwick

21 – 22 June, 2018

The ASMI Postgraduate Summer School provides a forum for postgraduate students and early career scholars in the field of Italian Studies to share their research and test their ideas.

We welcome proposals for papers on any aspect of Modern Italian history, politics, society and culture, from the eighteenth to the twenty-first century and from any academic discipline.

Participants will present their papers in panel sessions and then receive feedback from senior scholars and junior colleagues in a welcoming and supportive environment.

Papers can be in English or Italian and should be no more than 20 minutes in length.
Please send an abstract (max 250 words) and a short biography (max 100 words) to the conference organisers at asmi.summerschool.2018@gmail.com by Monday 9th April 2018.
The Summer School programme will include two keynote lectures and a training session (speakers to be confirmed).

The Summer School is free to all members of ASMI. ASMI membership is offered at a discounted rate of £20 per calendar year to students and the unwaged, and includes subscription to the journal Modern Italy (http://www.asmi.org.uk/membership/).

A limited number of travel grants will be available. For information, please contact the organisers at asmi.summerschool.2018@gmail.com
The organising committee: Gianmarco Mancosu (University of Warwick), Daniela Zanini (School of Advanced Study, University of London), Emiliano Zappalà (University of Warwick), Kate Devine (Royal Holloway, University of London).

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13th Annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture, 2 March 2016

Thirteenth Annual Edward Said Memorial Lecture

by Karima Bennoune

Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Dissent and Solidarity after Said

 

(Karima Bennoune is Professor of Law at the University of California at Davis. She is the author of Your Fatwa Does Not Apply Here: Untold Stories from the Fight Against Muslim Fundamentalism (2013), which won the 2014 Dayton Literary Prize for Nonfiction. In November 2015, Bennoune was named the United Nations Special Rapporteur in the field of cultural rights.)

Wednesday, March 2nd, 2016 at 7 pm
Wine reception at 6 pm

MS0.1, Mathematics Institute, Zeeman Building
University of Warwick, Coventry CV4 7AL
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/maths/general/gethere/
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/about/visiting/maps/interactive/

The lecture is free and open to the public

For more information:
Department of English and Comparative Literary Studies
+44(0)24 7652 3323
Email: Rashmi.Varma@warwick.ac.uk

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