cfp.english.upenn.edu

http://www.ru.nl/hlcs/worthathousandwords

Proposals deadline: 1 July 2012

Confirmed plenary speakers: Elena Gualtieri (University of Groningen), Mette Gieskes (Radboud University Nijmegen)

Clement Greenberg once famously said, “photography is closer today to literature than it is to the other graphic arts”. Yet what makes photography so close to literature? And what about the interactions between literature and other visual arts? Are some combinations indeed more productive than others? And what happens when literature and the visual arts meet?

This symposium seeks to explore the intersections of literature and the visual arts. We aim to bring together scholars working in a diversity of (interdisciplinary) fields, and investigate what happens when literature and the visual arts interact: what functions do the visual arts have in literary texts? How does visual art change and affect narratological elements and genre? What role have illustrations played in literature? What is the effect of contemporary developments such as the internet, social media and camera phones on the relationship between literature and visual art?

Topics include but are by no means limited to:
• The development of photography and literary realism
• Literature, visual art and memory
• The influence of literature on visual art
• The future of literary texts in a visual age
• Literature and digital art
• Representations and functions of visual arts and artists in literature throughout history
• Visual art and literary genre
• Technology of the visual arts in literature
• Cooperation between authors and visual artists

We aim to publish a selection of papers.