The Department of literature, history of ideas and religion at Gothenburg University, Sweden is pleased to announce the international exploratory workshop

RETHINKING INTIMACY IN WOMEN’S READING  AND WRITING AT THE PERIPHERIES OF EUROPE.

 

The workshop strives to explore the issue of intimacy, its representations, scenes and scenarios in women’s reading and writing between the 1700s to the 1900s, starting from the evidence that extensive research has been done on the topic in Western and Central Europe but to a lesser extent in the peripheries of Southern, Eastern and Northern Europe.

 

The first initiative in this direction was the exploratory workshop “RETHINKING INTIMACY IN WOMEN’S READING AND WRITING (1700S-1900S)” arranged at the Faculty of Foreign Languages at Dimitrie Cantemir University, Bucharest in September 2016. Following the key speaker’s (Dr. Birgitta Johansson Lindh, University of Gothenburg) seminal presentation, eight scholars in literature at Bucharest universities presented their research followed by discussions on the subject of intimacy, women’s literature and the reconceptualization of these topics via new theories and methods. One outcome of the concluding session of the Bucharest workshop was the development of the idea that the intimacy topos in women’s writing and in the strategies of reading in the 18th and 19th c. a) can be incorporated in a cultural transformation of intimacy in the Europeripheries and b) is relevant to genres of literature and other cultural expressions today, spanning both popular and highbrow circuits. This second workshop would narrow the scope and focus on these peripheries of Europe. How was intimacy
represented in women’s literature and what was its reception of it in these parts of Europe? How were influences from Western women writers negotiated? How did different social, cultural and religious backgrounds influence the expressions and discussions of the topos of intimacy? The workshop aims at helping the research community identify possible areas of investigation of intimacy aspects related to women’s reading and writing practices, as well as modes of integrating the intimacy dimension into research content in the participants own research areas.

 

By inviting scholars within the former COST activity and current DARIAH activity as well as scholars at the faculty of Humanities at the University of Gothenburg the second workshop would expand on the topic of the first workshop a) with a new perspective and angle b) go further into depth with the theoretical discussion (by adding a transnational perspective).

Key speakers:
Dr. Viola Parente-Čapková, Turku University, Finland
Dr. Nadezhda Alexandrova, Sofia University, Bulgaria.
Dr. Carmen Dutu, Dimitrie Cantemir University, Romania

 

Proposals
We invite proposals for individual papers. Abstracts should have a maximum length of 250 words and should also contain first and last name of presenter, title of proposed presentation, 5 key words, institutional affiliation (if applicable), mailing address and email address

Participation is free. Participants should make their own travel and accommodation arrangements and cover the expenses. There is, however, a limited number of bursaries for those participants who are able to prove that their contribution is valuable to the overall scope and purpose of the workshop. The number of participants will be limited for the sake of more time for discussions and for common future initiatives.

Proposals must be received no later than the 1st of June and should be addressed to:
Dr. Birgitta Johansson Lindh
birgitta.johansson.lindh@lir.gu.se

 

Workshop language : English

Organizing committee:
Head of organizing committee: Dr. Birgitta Johansson Lindh, Gothenburg University
Members: Dr. Viola Parente-Čapková, Turku University, Finland ; Dr. Nadezhda Alexandrova, Sofia University, Bulgaria. ; Dr. Carmen Dutu, Dimitrie Cantemir University, Romania

Publication:
A selection of workshop papers will be offered for publication as an edited volume in BRILL “Women Writers in History” Publishing series.