Please see below for the CfP for Making, Breaking and Transgressing Boundaries: Europe in Romantic Writing, 1775-1830, which will take place later this year. As well as responses to the CfP, the organisers are also keen to hear from students who would be interested in contributing to the conference’s discussion blog – please email romanticboundaries@gmail.com. You can find the conference on Twitter @RBoundaries.
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From William Blake to Germaine de Staël, Jean-Jacques Rousseau to Thomas Robert Malthus, the Romantic period is fraught with attempts to define and redefine concepts of European boundaries. This one-day conference invites papers which consider the making, breaking and transgression of boundaries in response to revolution and national struggle across Europe between 1775 and 1830. As the borders of political territories move, expand and collapse, how is this then translated into political, philosophical and literary discourse? What does it mean for a writer in this period to cross boundaries as an exile and travel in a way distinct from the Grand Tour? How are the boundaries of Europe represented as national borders or poetical spaces?
Topics may discuss but are not limited to:
- Topographical and political boundary formation/breaking in radical literature
- National identities; marginalisation
- Romantic exile and exilic behaviour; movement across borders
- Circulation of texts; censorship and suppression of movement
- Responses to revolution and reformation
- The literary in the political text; the political text as ‘literature’
- Women’s writing; the limitations of liberté, egalité, fraternité
- Literary, political, and philosophical concepts of Europe, nationhood, and citizenship
Abstracts for 20 minute papers should be 250 words in length followed by a 50 word biography. We invite proposals for poster presentations, film presentations, and interactive pieces that explore the theme of Romantic boundaries in exciting new ways. Please address proposals to Rosie Bailey and Katie Stamps at romanticboundaries@gmail.com.
The deadline for submission is 25 April 2014.
Our blog has a dedicated discussion page, which we will update regularly with interactive videos and questions prior to the conference. We hope to break down the boundaries of distance between interdisciplinary researchers in the humanities, and invite you to join the conversation.