Narrations of origins in world cultures and the arts

The international ESCL conference Narrations of Origins in World Cultures and the Arts (University of Torino, 24-27 November 2020) will investigate the relationships between ancient and modern cultures, analyzing the most relevant mythologies, archetypes and narrations of origins according to groundbreaking critical perspectives. It will compare literature, science and any form of artistic representation – including cinema and new media – in order to study the different cosmological patterns from cultural, historical and anthropological frameworks. It will also reflect on the role of narratives of pure invention, including parodic and provoking ones. In general, it will explore how poetic, fictional and artistic experimentations intersect in cross-cultural and interdisciplinary approaches. We therefore encourage members and participants to think about these questions from the greatest range of possible perspectives.

Personal and panel proposals may address issues (clusters and subthemes) like the following:

1. Narrations and representations of origins in world cultures: the archetypes and their developments.

2. The Big Bang and the birth of human beings: science narratives.

3. Cosmology, art and poetry.

4. Imagining the origins, representing the sublime.

5. Origins as textual genesis, in the arts, literature, styles and literary genres.

6. Languages and narratives of origins in the arts of modernism and modernity.

7. A big deception? Fakes, simulations, inventions, and odd hypothesis about origins.

info: chiara.lombardi@unito.it

https://www.facebook.com/EsclOrigins2020/

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https://www.originsescl2020.unito.it/home

A selection of contributes will be published in «CompLit: Journal of European Literature, Arts and Society», the journal of the European Society of Comparative Literature/Société Européenne de Littérature Comparée (https://escl-selc.eu/escl-journal/).

Proposals should be submitted in English, Italian or French to the e -mail address: origins.escl.to2020@gmail.com not later than the31st of January 2020. Proposals should include a title, an abstract (max.300 words), a short bio-bibliography and an e-mail address.
The time of delivery for each paper should be no morethan 20 minutes.
Registration fee for Participants: 90 euros; Graduate Students and PhDs: 50 euros.
The conference languages will be English, French and Italian.