The Monk, the Priest, the Nun
University of Pennsylvania
22-23 March, 2013

The Center for Italian Studies at the University of Pennsylvania invites submissions for papers to be read at the interdisciplinary international conference.

The conference, held at the University of Pennsylvania, will explore how monks, priests, and nuns dwell in literary texts and the visual arts quite comfortably, from Saint Anthony’s life to Boccaccio’s Decameron, from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales to Diderot’s La religieuse, from Giotto’s frescoes to Salvator Dali’s surrealistic visions. What is their destiny in our desacralized age? Are they the new wanderers, do they live as foreigners in a world of people who no longer not recognize them? From
Lewis to Manzoni, from Bernanos to Chesterton, from Fogazzaro to Parise, priests, monks and nuns still inhabit our literature, art, cinema, as a sort of uncanny presence.

The keynote speaker will be Victoria Kirkham.

Plenary speakers will  include: Armando Maggi, Millicent Marcus, Giuseppe Mazzotta, Roland Martinez, Christine Poggi, Janet Smarr, David Wallace, Elissa Weaver, Rebecca West, and others.

Please send a 250 word proposal and a brief vita (no cv) to italians@sas.upenn.edu by November 15.