The Literary Image and the Screen

An International Conference

Deadline Extension: 30 June 2019


Department of Modern Languages and Cultures, University of Genoa, Italy

Date: 5-6 September 2019

CFP: https://www.academia.edu/39368828/Call_for_Papers_The_Literary_Image_and_The_Screen

Conference description:



This conference aims to explore the connections and relationships between literature and the screen, from the pre-cinematic age to the era of television and new digital technologies. A cross-media approach, aimed at understanding the reciprocal influences between these various artistic forms, as seen from the point of view of techniques of representation, theoretical exchanges and the circulation of works, will shed new light on ideas in, and theories of, both literature and the cinema.



The dialogue between different genres of literature and film has been crucial in their respective developments from the birth of cinema to the present day. Moreover, various texts and authors in the literature of the pre-cinematic era can be analysed through film techniques and be regarded as, in some ways, anticipating them.



This can lead us to ask somewhat quirky questions: is it possible to perceive elements in Dante’s works which can be understood in terms of film-editing? How and why does Flaubert use close-ups in his novels and can cinematic theory offer further insight into his literary techniques? Could the study of light and colour in cinema be useful in discussing Modernist poetry or Surrealist prose? Such questions could also be asked in the opposite direction and we could apply techniques and approaches from literary criticism, which were previously used solely in the study of literature, to the analysis of film.



Focusing on more recent timeframes we could ask: how do digital media, 3D technologies, virtual reality or computer-generated images trigger neo-modernist definitions of space in novels since the turn of the century? To what extent do latter-day TV series reproduce earlier forms of serial, literary fiction?



We welcome, though do not restrict, proposals for papers that pertain to the following lines of enquiry:



literary anticipations of cinematographic techniques

the relationship between literature and pre-cinematic experimentations (for example, the diorama and the magic lantern)

literary techniques that influence film narration and, conversely, cinematographic techniques that influence writing

contemporary film theories and literary techniques

the manner in which the forms of cinema and literature differ in the ways that they respond to societal, political and cultural change

theoretical exchanges between the two disciplines (e.g. S. Eisenstein, F. Jameson)

spatial and temporal approaches to the literary and cinematic

writers’ reflection on cinema



The official language of the conference is English.



Keynote speakers: Prof Laura Marcus and Prof Nikolaj Lübecker, University of Oxford.



This will be the opening event of a series co-organised by the University of Genoa and the University of Oxford.



Please send an abstract (max. 250 words) and a short bio (max. 50 words) in a PDF attachment to: oxford.genoa.conference.2019@gmail.com



Proposals should include your name, university affiliation (if applicable), academic status, and the title of your paper. Papers should not exceed 20 minutes.

The deadline for abstract submissions has been extended to June 30, 2019. Notification of acceptance will be communicated by July 15, 2019.

The Organizing Committee

Peter Budrin, Pany Xenophontos (University of Oxford)

Daniele Franzoni, Martina Morabito, Natalia Osis (University of Genoa)