CALL
FOR PAPERS
8th
Annual Graduate Student Conference
April 6-8, 2006
The Graduate Programmes in Comparative Literature, Spanish,
and Theory and Criticism
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario
DARK
MATTERS:
Obscured thinking and shadowed language
This
interdisciplinary conference seeks to explore the notion
of "darkness" in its various conceptualizations
and codifications, both throughout history and in the
present. We emphasize the idea of the dark as a terrain
of constant negotiation, and as a concept with a plurality
of meanings and implications. The conference seeks to
elaborate upon these diverse perceptions of darkness,
from the idea of the abyss in philosophy or astronomy
to darkness in photography and other visual arts, from
theology and psychoanalysis to literary metaphors and
tropes, and other potential ways of constructing, thinking
about, or representing darkness in the present.
Suggested Themes:
dark humour…underworlds & afterlives…the
void…a little Night-music…St John of the Cross…
mestizaje… minority languages …metaphors of
blindness…Lacan…chiaroscuro & the Baroque…behind
the veil…camera obscura …Freud…film
noir …rhetoric of the absolute…black holes
… nihilism and nothingness...the dark side of language:
euphemism & taboo …
the death drive & the unconscious…Prince of
Darkness: political justice & ethics…the abyss
…things that go bump in the night…Nietzsche…the
shadow play…not-white magic …
a flash in the darkness: phenomenology & post-structuralism…Heart
& Liver of Darkness…
the visible invisible…Jung…negative theology…forgetting…Deleuze
…black box…creation/destruction…the
vanishing point…Calderón’s prison…“ít
was a dark and stormy night"
We
invite proposals for 20-minute papers on literature, linguistics,
literary theory, philosophy, theology, visual arts, music,
cinema, science, etc.
Proposals
in English, Spanish or French (250-500 words) should be
accompanied by a short CV and address, and submitted by
January 9, 2006.
Please
send submissions to:
Graduate Student Conference
Department of Modern Languages and Literatures
Room 115, University College
University of Western Ontario
London, Ontario, Canada N6A 3K7
Tel: (519) 661-3196 – Fax: (519) 661-4093
Or e-mail to: Monica Rettig (mrettig@uwo.ca ) or Meredith
Snyder (msnyder6@uwo.ca)