Appel à communication : Archaising/Classicising/Medievalising Self-Historicisation and its Discontents

Johann Tischbein, Goethe dans la campagne romaine, 1787, huile sur toile, 164 x 206 cm, Francfort, Städelsches Kunstinstitut und Städtische Galerie.

Type : appel à communication

Date limite de l’appel : 2 mai 2017

Date de l’événement : 17 juin 2017

Lieu : Oxford, Centre for Classical Studies, Corpus Christi College

Texts, songs, buildings, or objects that consciously refer to themselves using the visual, aural, or architectural vocabulary of a previous era present both interesting historical and critical, as well as historiographic, questions. This one-day symposium intends to ask what self-historicising means in the widest possible variety of contexts and media, and to address some the of theoretical gaps in the study of objects that are aware of their own temporality. Medievalising tendencies in the text style or decoration of Early Modern printed books, for instance, raise questions about what constitutes ‘humanist’ or ‘Renaissance’ content, and the geographic assumptions of Italianate origin often associated with classicising and not medievalising. Other possible topics include seventeenth through nineteenth century classicisms and their implications for the Grand Tour, classicisms and colonialisms, Protestant and Catholic classicisms during the Reformation, the association between materiality and archaising in general, as well as archaising tendencies (Roman to Greek, Imperial Roman to Republican &c) in classical text and art itself. Participants from across the humanities and social sciences are invited to submit an approximately 250 word abstract for a 15-20 minute paper on any related topic, with the goal of mutual discussion across disciplinary and period lines in common. Provisions for slides, audio, or other media display, will be made ahead of time, and lunch is included with the £15 conference fee.  Abstracts should be submitted by 2 May to Alexandra Marraccini at: avmarraccini@uchicago.edu.