cfp.english.upenn.edu

The Golden Age is the Tenth Annual Postgraduate Conference hosted by the English Programme, University of Dundee, in conjunction with the Scottish Word and Image Group. It is intended to investigate the diverse applications and conceptions of the term ‘The Golden Age’. The phrase most obviously resonates with the theme of nostalgia, which is popularly understood as a wistful longing for the past but which also denotes homesickness. While ‘The Golden Age’ typically conjures up idealized and nostalgic visions of the past, it is equally suggestive of a discontented present, and it even gestures forward to utopian visions of future golden ages. There are, of course, many other relevant meanings of ‘The Golden Age’, such as a period of prelapsarian innocence, in religious terms, or relating to representations of childhood and maturity. The term is also often used to refer to specific, respected periods of cultural production in all kinds of literature and visual media. Indeed, nearly every period, genre, nation, and cultural form has some kind of mythic, often illusory, ‘Golden Age’ against which it is defined.

Proposals that address any configuration of ‘The Golden Age’ are welcomed from all disciplines and periods. Proposals should be 300 words long, for papers lasting 20 minutes.

http://www.dundee.ac.uk/english/news/2012/goldenagecfp/