Call for Papers
The Graduate School for
Humanities at the University of Bristol is pleased to announce its forthcoming
Postgraduate Conference ‘Imagined Spaces: Literature and Environments,’ due
to take place on Wednesday April 29th 2015 at the University of Bristol.
Keynote speaker: Professor
David Morley, University of
Warwick
The
conference will build on recent space and place studies in literature and
culture questioning the spatial relationship between humans and our
environment. We want to explore how emerging literary ecology studies are
opening up new interdisciplinary ways of mapping space.
Broadly,
we will examine the relationship between texts and their “locatedness” in
space, opening discussion on issues such as globalization, travel,
eco-criticism, spatial poetics, imagination, memory, and mapping.
We
imagine space as a diverse spectrum and we hope to see discussion of
traditionally ‘green spaces’ opening up to their prismatic potential.
Questions
to consider include: What is the significance of regional literature? How do
books and texts travel through space and place? How do imaginative places shape
us? How do urban and rural environments affect human experience and identity?
How are modes of mapping influenced by special experience? How is space performed
and how does it ‘perform’ us?
We
are currently accepting 200-300 word abstracts for individual papers on any
aspect of imagined spaces. Presentations of papers must not exceed 15 minutes.
We
particularly welcome papers on the following subjects:
Performing Space and Performed Spaces
Cultural Memory & Identity
Lives of Specific Cities
Regionalism & Regional Literature
‘The Travelling Book’: how books travel
through time and space
Mappings: Place and Cartography
Imaginary and Mythical Place: children’s
and young adult literature
‘Prismatic Environments’: eco-criticism
today
Waterways and Seas: navigations & narratives
Please
note that this approach is not limited to these subjects or literary
narratives. We also welcome interdisciplinary and collaborative papers.
Please
submit your abstract as a Word doc along with your institution, paper title and
a brief biography to imaginedspacesbristol@gmail.com by 9th March 2015.
Start
the conversation @imaginedspaces.