Organized by the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore And

Call for papers: International scientific conference IMAGOLOGY PROFILES: THE DYNAMICS OF NATIONAL IMAGERY IN LITERATURE

Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, February 6-7, 2015

Organized by the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore and

Lithuanian University of Educational sciences in partnership with the

Association of Lithuanian Comparative Literature

Imagology is one of the most popular areas of research in contemporary comparative studies. Literary imagology examines the manifestation, in literary texts, of images, stereotypes, and entrenched views about one’s own and other peoples’ ethnic and national characters. Although this methodology is currently experiencing an intense revival, it has not yet received adequate theoretical or practical attention in the humanities in Lithuania. This conference seeks to attract greater attention to this field by reinforcing imagology’s main concepts and thereby problematizing our understanding of the role of national identity in literature. Contemporary imagology posits that, because national identities are inseparable from images and views circulating in the public sphere, it is all the more relevant to explore the problem of national identity through the dynamics of literary imagery. Particular attention will be paid to the question of Baltic national identities in literature.

We invite the participation of literary historians, literary theorists, scholars of Baltic literature, and other literary scholars.

The conference plans to:

1)provide a theoretical and historical overview of imagology and its methodological relevance to literary studies;

2)examine national self-representations and self-images, and how these impact the formation of national identity;

3)explore the idea of national character and how it is established in the literary imagination through concepts of cultural difference and a conscious relation to the Other;

4)analyze the literary concept of the Other and constructions of the Other in national imagery—their evolution and related stereotypes.

PRESENTATION THEMES:

Imagology: Theoretical principles, terms, and definitions

• The national image in literature as a constant representational model.
• The fragmentation and atomization of contemporary identity in literature.
• National stereotypes and their stability/changeability in literature.
• The deideologization and demythologization of national images—contemporary modifications and postmodern changes.
• Interobjectivity and connections with new literary theories (imagology and sociopoetics; geocriticism in the context of imagology, etc.)”

Self (auto-images)

• National character and its functioning in Baltic and other literatures.
• Aspects of Baltic character; literary types and prototypes.
• Relationships between national, ethnic, and regional literary identities and Eurocentric, cosmopolitan consciousness.
• Patriotism, conservatism, and provincialism as problematic mentality traits and their manifestations in literature.

Intersections of Self and Other

• Interactions between identity and image: Self as transformed Other / Other as transformed Self.
• Shifting national self-images in exodic, e(migration), and travel literatures.
• The Eastern European and the West.
• Tourism discourses and fictions. The role of social imagination.

The Other (hetero-images)

• Literary representations of foreigners. Popular myths, preconceptions, and stereotypes about other nations.
• A creative, differentiated view of the Other. Productive absorption of European cultural strata.
• Ethno-portraits of our closest neighbors.
• Representations of “exotic,” non-European countries. Exoticism and the tradition of its representation in classical and modern literature.
• Representations of familiar and foreign landscapes, topographies, climates, physiognomies, etc., as aspects of national mentality.

Dates and venue

The conference will take place 6-7 February (Friday and Saturday) at the Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore, Antakalniostr.6, Vilnius, Lithuania.

Conference languages

Presentations in Lithuanian, Latvian, English, and Russian are welcome.

Abstracts

Please submita 200-word abstract in English October15, 2014including the title of your proposal, full name,professional affiliation, and e-mail address.All prospective presenters will be notified by October 31, 2014.

Presentations

Each presenter will be given 20 minutes for presentation and 10 minutes for discussion.Presentation based articles, after being submitted to the editorial process, will be published in the post-conference volume.

Fee

The participation fee is 30 € that will cover coffee breaks and the conference dinner, as well as the necessary conference materials.

Conference Committee

Vigmantas Butkus, Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore

Dalia Cidzikaitė, Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences

Pauls Daija, Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art (University of Latvia)

Silvestras Gaižiūnas, Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore

Zanda Gūtmane, Liepaja University

Algis Kalėda, Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore; Vilnius University

Benedikts Kalnačs, Institute of Literature, Folklore and Art (University of Latvia)

Radoslaw Okulicz-Kozaryn, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

Nijolė Vaičiulėnaitė–Kašelionienė, Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences

Mindaugas Kvietkauskas, Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore

Dalia Kuizinienė, Vytautas Magnus University

Laura Laurušaitė, Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore

Sigutė Radzevičienė,Lithuanian University of Educational Sciences

Manfredas Žvirgždas, Institute of Lithuanian Literature and Folklore