CFP: Visual Theology II, Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites, 22-22 September 2019

Visual Theology II:

Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites: Sacre Conversazioni

St Michael and All Angels Chapel, Marlborough College

21- 22nd September 2019
https://www.visualtheology.org.uk

‘All great art is praise’ John Ruskin

This conference aims to celebrate the life and work of John Ruskin during his bicentenary. This two day event will create a space for theologically engaged conversations about Ruskin, religion and the arts. We seek to focus on Ruskin’s religious and aesthetic writings informed by his relationship with Christianity, as well as examine his influence on those within the Victorian art world, specifically the Pre-Raphaelites.

Whilst Ruskin can be said to be a major proponent of Victorian art writing, with religion underling his mode of approach to many areas of nineteenth century public life and thought, in the twenty-first century we have somewhat of a reversal: our interpretation of religion in the arts challenges the very competencies of disciplines such as art history. Resisting attempts to historically confine Ruskin’s religious aesthetics to the nineteenth century alone, this conference suggests that Ruskin’s voice offers clear and often prophetic insight into many facets of modern image interpretation. Ruskin’s formulations, albeit many faceted, provide not only a means of examining nineteenth century religious dialogues about accessing the divine, modes of prayer, and about public art and public spaces, but also offer a linguistic opportunity for us to take Ruskin into growing scholarship studies such as biblical reception, and into contemporary art practice that draws on the spirituality he invested in visual media.

Approaches are sought that analyse specific Ruskinian or Pre-Raphaelite pictorial representations as they relate to modes of Ruskinian religious art writing and / or theological engagement. We encourage critical questions of the Sacre Conversazioni held between Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites: how did they collectively or individually respond to and reshape religious imagery, what is the significance of their chosen media, what new covenants of image interpretation did they seek and successfully employ, and how critical and conversational were they? Furthermore, we seek to discuss the transference of religious symbols and threads of Catholicism from Italy to Britain, via Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites who helped make Venice and Florence a ville toute anglaises. We also ask how best to curate Ruskin’s contribution to the nineteenth century, and in what sense we or other artists receive its Christian perspective as significant?

With this in mind, we anticipate a wide and varied body of visual and theological conversations about sacred art with Ruskin and the Pre-Raphaelites at the core. Proposals might include, but are not limited to:

Divine Designs: art writing in relation to God, faith, and unbelief; seeking truth through representation and naturalism, as well as architecture; explorations of biblical symbols and the iconographic, e.g. Pre-Raphaelitism’s engagement with devotional art.

Responding to and Reshaping Religion: aesthetically confronting theological fluctuations; locating new representations of the faithful and the ‘faithless’; churchmanship and liturgical contexts for visual engagement.

Curating Ruskin, Curating Religion: negotiating desires to neutralise visual representations of the divine in public spaces; Ruskin from the perspective of ‘post-secular’ image practice and criticism; making Ruskin accessible and deconstructing his understanding of divinity for the next generation.

From the Sacred to the Secular: Visualising Discord: the visual record of discordant faith; identifying evocations of spirituality without a faith – e.g. the numinous light filled work of J.M.W. Turner; interpreting anxieties through symbology or biblical reception.

Media Hermeneutics: Ruskin on daguerreotypes, painting, stained glass, etc.; media positioning and their implied or explicit morality; pictorial naturalism and theologies of realism.

Institutional Theologies; exploring frameworks of institutional platforms such as state commissioning of religious art, church commissioning of stained glass, the acceleration of church building, and conscious formulation of national collections.

Conversing with Italy; locating the inheritance of European religious imagery amidst the Ruskinian and Pre-Raphaelite lexicon; extracting Catholic and / or Protestant liminality in symbology, architecture and fresco.

Conference news: The Arts and Feeling in 19th-Century Literature and Culture, Birkbeck College, 16-18 July 2015

The Arts and Feeling in Nineteenth-Century Literature and Culture
Birkbeck College, University of London 16th – 18th July 2015

Keynote Speakers: Caroline Arscott, Tim Barringer, Meaghan Clarke, Kate Flint, Hilary Fraser, Michael Hatt, Lynda Nead, Jonah Siegel, Alison Smith

This conference will explore the ways in which nineteenth-century authors, artists, sculptors and musicians imagined and represented emotion and how writers and critics conceptualised the emotional aspects of aesthetic response. It aims to map the state of the field in this growing area of interest for nineteenth-century scholars by locating recent interdisciplinary work on sentimentality and art and writing and the senses within wider debates
about the relationship between psychology and aesthetics in the long-nineteenth century.

Speakers will investigate the physiology and psychology of aesthetic perception and the mind/body interactions at play in the experience of a wide range of arts. Key questions include: How did Victorian artists represent feeling and how were these feelings aestheticised? What rhetorical strategies did Victorian writers use to figure aesthetic response? What expressive codes and conventions were familiar to the Victorians? Which nineteenth-century scientific developments affected artistic production and what impact did these have on affective reactions? The conference includes a panel discussion on the topic of ‘Curating Feeling’ with speakers Michael Hatt, Lynda Nead and Alison Smith.

To register for the conference, please visit: https://www2.bbk.ac.uk/artsandfeeling

Places are limited.

Please address any questions to Dr. Victoria Mills at artsandfeeling@gmail.com

More information will be available soon at www.artsandfeeling.com

CfP: The 'Exotic' Body in 19th-Century British Drama, Oxford (Deadline extended: 15 June 2014)

The ‘Exotic’ Body in 19th-century British Drama

University of Oxford

Funded under the 2011 Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowships scheme, European Commission

25-26 September 2014

Faculty of English Language and Literature, University of Oxford

Convenor: Dr Tiziana Morosetti (Oxford)

Confirmed speakers:

Professor Ross Forman (Warwick), Dr Peter Yeandle (Manchester),

Dr Hazel Waters (Institute of Race Relations, London)

Increasing attention has been paid in recent years to the representation of the Other on the 19^th-century British stage, with key studies such as Acts of Supremacy: The British Empire and the Stage, 1790-1930 (Bratton et al. 1991), The Orient on the Victorian Stage (Ziter 2003), Bodies in Dissent: Spectacular Performances of Race and Freedom, 1850-1910 (Brooks 2006), Racism on the Victorian Stage: Representation of Slavery and the Black Character (Waters 2007), Nineteenth-Century Theatre and the Imperial Encounter (Gould 2011), China and the Victorian Imagination: Empires Entwined (Forman 2013). Building on these, the conference aims at exploring the concept, politics, and aesthetic features of the ‘exotic’ body on stage, be it the actual body of the actor/actress as s/he performs in genres such as the ‘Oriental’ extravaganza, or the fictional, ‘picturesque’ bodies they bring on stage. A term that in itself needs interrogation, the ‘exotic’ will therefore be discussed addressing the visual features that characterize the construction and representation of the Other in 19^th-century British drama, as well as the material conditions, and techniques that accompany the ‘exotic’ on stage on the cultural and political background of imperial Britain.

One of the dissemination activities for the two-year project ‘The Representation of the “Exotic” Body in 19th-century English Drama’ (REBED), funded under the 2011 Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowships scheme, the conference also hopes to function as a site for discussing the state of the art on the ‘exotic’ in the theatrical cultures of both Romantic and Victorian Britain; contributions on ongoing research and/or recently completed projects are therefore particularly encouraged.

Although attention will be paid mostly to the non-European Other, papers addressing a European ‘exotic’ are also welcome.

Topics include the following:

Definitions of ‘exotic’:

-Is the non-European Other on stage really ‘exotic’?

-Are any genres more ‘exotic’ (or more liable to convey ‘exotic’ stereotypes) than others?

-Do different dramatis personæ and/or settings convey different degrees of ‘otherness’?

-Can the British on stage be ‘exotic’, and, if so, to what extent?

-Is the spectacular on stage itself ‘exotic’?

Staging the ‘exotic’ body:

-How are costumes, make-up, scenery, movements employed to construct the ‘exotic’?

-Are any visual features more recurrent than others?

-To what extent is the visual representation of the ‘exotic’ body historically accurate?

-How does music contribute to the staging of the Other?

-Who embodies the ‘exotic’? Is the acting career informed by bringing the Other on stage?

-Who were the audiences? Did their composition have an impact on the performance of the ‘exotic’?

-Are any experiences abroad relevant to how managers staged the Other in Britain?

-In what ways were representations of the ‘exotic’ body informed by venues?

-The Other on the London stage and the provinces

Cultural and political backgrounds:

-To what extent did audiences’ expectations affect theatrical representations of the Other?

-In what ways do class, gender, race inform the acting and managing of ‘exotic’ pieces?

-To what extent did scientific and anthropological accounts inform theatrical portraits of the Other?

-Were illustrations of (European and/or) non-European countries informed by theatre?

-In what ways have political narratives influenced (or been influenced by) the ‘exotic’ on stage?

-Has the legal frame for the theatre influenced the staging of the Other?

-Visual points of contact between popular entertainment and theatrical representations of the Other

The travelling ‘exotic’:

-How do texts such as Arabian Nights, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or Mazeppa ‘travel’ between dramatic and non-dramatic genres?

-Survival of a Romantic ‘exotic’ in the Victorian staging of the Other;

-Is Othello on the Romantic and Victorian stage ‘exotic’?

-How do translations/adaptations from other languages contribute to the construction of the Other on the British stage? Can we define a British specificity when it comes to the ‘exotic’?

-Has the theatrical representation of the ‘exotic’ in Britain had an impact on non-British stages?

The legacy of 19^th-century ‘exotic’ body:

-Contemporary plays/performances addressing the Other on the 19^th-century British stage (e.g. Lolita Chakrabarti’s Red Velvet)

-The ‘exotic’ body on the British stage in a diachronic perspective

-The non-European Other in the 20^th- and 21^st-century Christmas pantomime

Abstracts of no more than 300 words and a short bio should be sent to rebedconference@gmail.com by 15 June 2014. Speakers whose abstracts have been accepted will be notified by 25 June. 

CfP: "Victorian Treasures and Trash", VPFA (Deadline 4/4/14)

The Victorian Popular Fiction Association
CFP: Victorian Treasures and Trash
6th Annual Conference, 8-10 July 2014
Institute of English Studies, Senate House, Malet Street, London WC1E 7HU

Keynote Speaker: Dr Jonathon Shears (Keele), ‘“[...] battered [...] soiled [...] broken [...] empty [...] half-smoked [...] stale”: The Hangover in Victorian Popular Fiction’.

Guest Speaker: Judith Flanders, ‘Painting Reality: Home vs. Home-ness’

Senate Library Special Collections Talk and ‘hands-on’ mini-exhibition: Dr Karen Attar, ‘Trash, Treasure or Trashy Treasure at the Institutional Library’.

The Victorian Popular Fiction Association conference is recognised as an important event on the annual conference circuit and offers a friendly and invigorating opportunity for established academics and post graduate students to share their current research. We remain committed to the revival of interest in understudied popular writers which is pivotal to the reputation this conference has established.  

The organisers invite a broad, imaginative and interdisciplinary interpretation of the topic and its relation to any aspect of Victorian popular literature and culture which might address literal or metaphorical representations of the theme.

We welcome proposals for 20 minute papers, or for panels of three papers, on topics which can include, but are not limited to:

*Treasures and Trash in: the home, the street, the store, the library, the gutter, the island, the workhouse, the factory, etc.
*Print culture and the literary marketplace: ‘trash’ fiction, high/low culture, taste, fashion, rarity, cheap editions, fine editions, ‘specials’, royalties, contracts, collectors, etc.
*Treasure: buried, hoarded, displayed, collected, traded, neglected, etc.
*Waste: scrap/s, refuse, recycling, reclamation, that which is/those who are discarded/unwanted, the abandoned, etc.
*Dirt: gossip, scandal, degeneracy, decay, cleanliness, healthfulness, godliness, etc.
*Trashed: defaced, vandalised, wasted, defamed, scandalised, denounced, drunk, drugged, etc.
*Industry: the ethics of production, craftsmanship, the cheap, the mass-produced, etc.
*Money: markets, debts/debtors, savings, shares, inheritances, ransoms, fortunes, etc.
*Papers and artefacts: archives, special collections, the museum, the preserved, the priceless, the lost, digitised treasures, etc.
*The Beloved: persons, possessions, memories, moments, etc.
*Values: validity, value/worth, cost, price, morals, family values, etc.
*Things: junk, clutter, paraphernalia, bric-a-brac, curiosities, trinkets, tokens/keepsakes, troves, etc.
*People: fortune-hunters, gold-diggers, prospectors, speculators, pirates, con-artists, thieves, beggars, prostitutes, consumers, etc.

Special author panels: This year we will schedule special panels to be hosted by guest experts on each of six key popular authors; therefore we especially welcome papers about the following authors:

Mary Elizabeth Braddon (hosted by Anne-Marie Beller)
Wilkie Collins (hosted by Mariaconcetta Constantini)
Marie Corelli (hosted by Nickianne Moody)
Florence Marryat (hosted by Greta Depledge)
Ouida (hosted by Jane Jordan and Andrew King)
Robert Louis Stevenson (hosted by Sara Clayson)

Other suggested authors/papers in previous years have also discussed authors such as:
J. M. Barrie | Mrs Beeton | Anne Brontë | Charlotte Brontë | Emily Brontë | Rhoda Broughton | Lewis Carroll | Mary Cholmondeley | Arthur Conan Doyle | Charles Dickens | George Eliot | Elizabeth Gaskell |
George Gissing | Thomas Hardy | Jerome K. Jerome | Rudyard Kipling | Eliza Lynn Linton | Edith Nesbit |
Margaret Oliphant | Dinah Craik | Olive Schreiner | Bram Stoker | William Makepeace Thackeray | Anthony Trollope | Mary Augusta Ward | H.G. Wells | Ellen Wood | Charlotte Yonge

Please send proposals of no more than 300 words to Drs. Kirsty Bunting, Janine Hatter and Helena Ifill at vpfamembership@gmail.com

Deadline for proposals: Friday 4th April 2014

Organisers will offer acceptances in the days following the 18th April 2014.

The VPFA 2014 conference website can be found here: http://victorianpopularfiction.org/ and conference registration details will be announced shortly. All speakers must be a member of VPFA to present. To become a member, please visit the website or email vpfamembership@gmail.com for a membership form.

Meanwhile you can meet delegates and hear the latest conference news on the VPFA Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Victorian-Popular-Fiction-Association/128736877207708 and through the twitter account @VPFA1. Also, you can follow the conference discussions using the hashtag #VPFA14.

CfP: The Michael Field Centenary Conference (Deadline 31/12/13)

The Michael Field Centenary Conference: New Directions in Fin de Siècle Studies
11-12 July 2014
Institute of English Studies, Senate House, University of London

Confirmed Keynote Speakers:
Professor Joseph Bristow (UCLA)
Professor Margaret D. Stetz (University of Delaware)

Michael Field (Katharine Bradley and Edith Cooper) occupies an increasingly central role as one of the most fascinating figures of the fin de siècle. Following ground-breaking revisionist scholarship of the 1990s which rediscovered Bradley and Cooper’s poetry, the last twenty years has seen a major resurgence in work on Michael Field – reflecting Bradley and Cooper’s own belief that their work would not be appreciated until sometime in the distant future.

This major international conference will mark the Michael Field Centenary, bringing together world-renowned scholars of fin de siècle literature, poetry, life writing, women’s writing and gender and sexuality.

The Michael Field Centenary conference also aims to acknowledge and celebrate the diversity and vitality of new scholarship surrounding Michael Field and fin de siècle literature generally, providing a platform for new voices and perspectives from postgraduate/ early career scholars. As the first major Michael Field conference following the 2004 ‘Michael Field and their World’ conference at University of Delaware, we aim to assess the how the ‘field’ has changed over the last ten years; for example, following the publication of significant works such as Margaret D. Stetz and Cheryl A. Wilson’s Michael Field and their World (2007), Marion Thain’s ‘Michael Field’: Poetry, Aestheticism, and the Fin de Siècle and Sharon Bickle’s The Fowl and the Pussycat: Love Letters of Michael Field, 1876-1909 (2008).

We invite proposals for 20 minute papers on topics related to Michael Field and fin de siècle culture, which may include, but are not limited to:

• Fin de siècle poetry
• Late-Victorian literary culture
• Aestheticism and Decadence
• Verse drama/closet drama
• Drama and performance
• Poetic form, prosody, the lyric
• History, time, historiography
• Interactions with different periods/literary traditions
• Life writing, biography, autobiography
• Gender, sexuality, desire
• Michael Field’s circle/influences
• Fashion and dress culture
• Catholicism and religious writing
• Art and design
• Book history, book design, printing
• The New Woman, the Female Aesthete
• Modernity, modernism
• Michael Field’s influence on later writers

Deadline for abstracts: 31 December 2013
Please email 300-word abstracts to michaelfield2014@gmail.com

Organisers: Dr Ana Parejo Vadillo (Birkbeck, University of London), Dr Sarah Parker (University of Stirling) and Dr Marion Thain (University of Sheffield)