CALL FOR PAPERS

BEHOLDING VIOLENCE:
A CONFERENCE ON MEDIEVAL AND EARLY MODERN
REPRESENTATION AND CULTURE

February 28 - March 1, 2008

BOWLING GREEN STATE UNIVERSITY

Historically, the action of beholding is linked to spectatorship and
theatricality in viewing. In the scene of beholding, one is often
captivated by the image before which one is placed. The viewer reacts
to the image and this reaction has political implications. Beholding
also carries with it elements of debt, duty, and responsibility.
Often the beholder of violence is placed in a precarious position
with regard to aesthetic and ethical questions.

This conference takes as its point of departure the beholder of
violence in medieval and early modern culture. We see seek papers
that consider how images, texts and performances promoted, supported
or helped negotiate real or imagined violence during the era and
consider how certain types of artistic or literary production may be
viewed as a response to collective cultural attitudes and customs.
Scholarship that engages contemporary theory and issues of audience
reception are particularly encouraged, as is interdisciplinarity.

Topics for submission may address (but are not limited to) such issues as:

o What new methods can we employ to examine the beholder's perspective?

o Is there such a thing called the "period eye" or an
acculturated gaze of the viewer?

o What is the relation between the representation and the
reception of violent content in art and literature in
          the medieval and early modern era?

o How does the artistic object contribute to subject formation
in culture?

o How do violence and pleasure intersect within the visual and
literary arts?

o How can the uses of violence in cultural representation serve
as means of knowing the
               past and as means of understanding and potentially altering
the present?

o How have cultures in conflict turned to art and literature as
tools for constructing
               community?

These are some of the questions that motivate this conference. We
hope to hear your ideas as well as to develop new questions that are
catalyzing your work.

To be considered for the program, please send a hard copy of your
abstract of the paper (300 words maximum) and a current c.v.
(including email address and phone number) by Friday August 31, 2007
to either:

Dr. Allie Terry Dr. Erin Felicia Labbie
Division of Art History Department of English
1000 Fine Arts Center 420 East Hall
Bowling Green State University Bowling Green
State University
Bowling Green, Ohio 43403 Bowling
Green, Ohio 43403

Decisions for the selection of papers to be included in the program
will be made by October 1, 2007. All inquiries may be sent via email
to alterry_at_bgsu.edu or labbie_at_bgsu.edu

--Dr. Erin Labbielabbie_at_bgnet.bgsu.eduAssistant ProfessorDepartment of EnglishBowling Green State University1001 E. Wooster St.Bowling Green, Ohio 43403 ========================================================== From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List CFP_at_english.upenn.edu Full Information at http://cfp.english.upenn.edu or write Jennifer Higginbotham: higginbj_at_english.upenn.edu ==========================================================Received on Thu Mar 08 2007 - 22:43:48 EST