Daily Archives: 31 August 2016

Australian and New Zealand Branch of International Arthurian Society – Renewal of Subscriptions for 2016 Now Due

This is a call for anyone interested in joining the Australian and New Zealand Branch of International Arthurian Society (ANZIAS).

Renewal of your subscriptions for 2016 is now due, so it is the perfect time to join. The registration is AUD$35, which includes a copy of the forthcoming edition of the  Journal of the International Arthurian Society (JIAS). This edition includes a suite of essays on ‘Positive Arthurian Emotions’ edited by Andrew Lynch. Excellent value!

Also, another reason for joining is that the next International Arthurian Congress, is to be held in Wuerzburg, Germany, from July 24th-29th, 2017. In order to participate in the Congress, which is always a vital and illuminating event, you are required to be a member of one of the IAS branches. The deadline for proposals is 1 October, 2016. The topics are:
a. Voice(s), Sounds and the Rhetoric of Performance
b. Postmedieval Arthur: Print and Other Media
c. Translation, Adaption and the Movement of texts
d. Current State of Arthurian Editions: Problems and Perspectives
e. Sacred and Profane in Arthurian Romance
f. Critical Modes and Arthurian Literature: Past, Present and Future

For more information, visit the website: https://www.romanistik.uni-wuerzburg.de/artuskongress2017/startseite/

If you would like to join, or you have any questions, please contact Peta Beasley at peta.beasley@uwa.edu.au.

Embodiment and New Materialism in Premodern Literature and Culture (1350-1700) – Call For Papers

Embodiment and New Materialism in Premodern Literature and Culture (1350-1700)
Lancaster University and The Storey
25–26 February, 2017

Conference Website

‘Say I am transform’d, who shall enjoy the Lease?’

New Materialist approaches to premodern literature and culture offer exciting avenues of scholastic engagement through refocussing debates around materiality and exploring what lies beyond the material. By emphasising a departure from conventional textual analysis and searching ‘not for the objectivity of things in themselves but for an objectivity of actualisation and realisation’ (Van der Tuin & Dolphijn, 2010), New Materialism provides a vocabulary and framework for approaching texts which have previously been marginalised. Thomas Tomkis’s comedy Albumazar (c.1615) is such an example of a periphery text, and stages moments where the material self becomes subject to doubt, transformation and ontological uncertainty.

This conference aims to bring together scholars from different disciplines including philosophy, literature, history and cultural studies, and will offer a unique space to explore the potentialities of New Materialist approaches to premodern literature and culture. In addition to a range of papers, the conference will also feature a performance workshop on Albumazar with The Rose Company in Lancaster Castle, and will end with a roundtable to push the boundaries of the conference further. We are also excited to announce that our confirmed plenary speaker is Professor Lisa Hopkins (Sheffield Hallam). The conference is funded through the NWCDTP.

We invite proposals for 20 minute papers on a variety of texts and approaches to the premodern period (c. 1350-1700). We particularly welcome papers that begin to engage with New Materialism, and proposals from early-career scholars and current postgraduates. Suggested topics include but are not limited to:

  • Juridical and political theory
  • The state of the individual
  • The body and phenomenology
  • Textual (im)materialisms
  • Performance as research practice
  • Biopolitics and sovereignty
  • Spaces and surfaces of the stage
  • Object-led ontology and ‘thing theory’
  • Transformation, magic and liminality

Please send abstracts of 250 words with a short biography to the conference organisers at: premodernnewmaterialisms@gmail.com.

The closing date for submissions is Friday 18 November, 2016.

Registration is free. Register by 3 February, 2016.