"Aesthetics & (Self) Deception"

French Graduate Student Association Grad Conference

University of Washington, Seattle

12-13 October, 2007

Keynote Speaker: Matei Calinescu, Indiana University

The nature and utility of representation are topics that have long
been debated, in terms of their controversial power to blur the
distinction between truth and lies, reality and illusion, pedagogy
and pure entertainment. Looking back on the development of this
debate, to what extent do we perpetuate, within a (post)modern and
(post)colonial world, issues related to the dangers and shortcomings
of representation?

Drawing on the rich potential of "aesthetics" and "deception," this
graduate student colloquium seeks to investigate the nature and the
politics of any act of creation as it relates to the tension between
identity and representation, the individual and its social image, the
original and the copy, and reality and its simulacrum, within a
variety of fields such as art, literature, literary theory, history,
the history of ideas, religion, cultural studies, film and theatre.
We welcome 20-minute papers in English or French (12 pages MLA)
pertaining, though not limited, to the following themes and topics:

- Aesthetics, Ethics and Deception
- Aesthetics and Ideology
- Nature vs. Art and Representation
- Imperial, Colonial and (Post)Colonial Rhetoric and Aesthetics
- Images of the Self and Cultural/National Stereotypes
- The Philosophy of Kitsch and Mass Produced Culture
- Trendiness in Literary and Critical Approaches
- Narrative Strategies, Translation and Unreliability
- Imitation, Parody, Irony and Various Masks
- Camouflaged Influences and Intertextuality

Please submit abstracts of 250 words, including your name, university
affiliation, and paper title by May 18th to frengrad_at_u.washington.edu.

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Received on Fri Apr 06 2007 - 17:58:52 EDT