Call for Papers – Conference: CONfini, CONtatti, CONfronti (CONfines, CONtacts, CONtrasts)

Milan, Italy
22 – 23rd Sep 2016
Deadline: 1st Mar 2016

Department of Foreign languages and literatures
Department of Language mediation and intercultural communication
PhD programme in Linguistic, literary and intercultural studies in European and extra-European perspectives

CONfini, CONtatti, CONfronti

The PhD programme in Linguistic, literary and intercultural studies in European and extra-European perspectives of the University of Milan is glad to announce the conference CONfini, CONtatti, CONfronti (CONfines, CONtacts, CONtrasts) that will take place at the University of Milan on September 22, 23 and 24, 2016.

Field description

“Both old and slow were I and my companions,
When we attained that narrow passage-way,
Where Hercules set up those signs of his,
Which warned men not to sail beyond their bounds”

(Inferno, XXVI, 106-109)

The nature of borders, or confines, is to mark, to separate and to determine the Other. Overcoming such barriers – not only geographic – offers opportunities for contact and conversation, eventually giving rise to reflections on the Identity and on the definition of Diversity.

Liminal spaces, with their inherent both specific and symbolic value, are fertile ground for the development of interesting linguistic and cultural phenomena at the individual and collective level. They also enhance the creation of new forms of literature, experiences of dialogue and translation. Negotiation of the relationship with the Other is expressed in ideological formulations, social practices and artistic representations.

CONfini, CONtatti, CONfronti offers a platform for the discussion of a wide range of problems and possibilities concerning the three key terms in its title, in order to reflect on the duality and the representation of the Self, which may be more or less explicit, yet it is always defined by the relations with the Other.

The conference aims at fostering an interdisciplinary debate, embracing topical issues across multiple research methodologies, a wide historical perspective and a variety of linguistic and cultural traditions.

The key-issues to be tackled in the conference broadly fall within the scope of the following themes:

1. Culture: hybrid cultures; identities; migrations

  • migrant movements and re-discussion of subjective and collective identities;
  • border changes, hybridization and cross-cultural phenomena in the transformation of geopolitical scenarios;
  • cultural landscapes and post-colonial subversion of identity parameters along the ‘original culture – former homeland – new political entities’ continuum;
  • the return of walls as a response to the challenges of migration and, in Europe, the rethinking of the freedom of movement.

2. Linguistics: contamination and plurilingualism; languages of the borders

  • coexistence and conflict between several official languages or between linguistic majorities and minorities;
  • slang and linguistic registers of second generation immigrants;
  • ideological non-neutrality of “-phonies”: post-colonial linguistic ties that persist and change in time, thus altering the balance of power;
  • identity value of cross-border linguistic modes that bypass geographical borders;
  • linguistic landscapes marked by the coexistence of multiple languages.

3. Literature: margins of a canon; subjectivity borders; migratory writings

  • authors, works and movements that “do not fit”, lead towards crisis, forcing to rethink literary conventions prevailing in a certain literary community in a given historical period;
  • borderline literary productions: across genres and channels;
  • writings that shed light on the thinness of ego boundaries, its duality and splitting, multiplication, dispersal, or the breakout from the self;
  • authors and works that confront us with the contradictions inherent in material boundaries, staging the physical, psychological and literary modulations of the migrant;
  • identification of stylistic or content contaminations among multiple authors in a comparative-literary perspective.

4. Translation: the limits of translatability borders, translation and ideology

  • language as “the horizon of the world” that imposes the challenge of “untranslatability”, in culturemes, in realia, in set and idiomatic expressions, in poetry, in the pragmatic dimension;
  • the translator as a subject “in-between worlds”, who embodies the border, modulates and crosses it;
  • the political significance of the translation of texts, between loyalty and ideological betrayal;
  • publishing policies in the production of translations: borders/ contacts imposed by the market.
  • Transversal contributions, covering more than one of the issues above, are welcome.

How to apply for the Conference?

Proposals for contributions

The application is open to all PhD students in the Humanities, and to those who received their PhD not earlier than two years ago. Those wishing to make a submission are kindly requested to send us an abstract of 300 words, with max. 6 references, to confini2016@unimi.it; by 1 March 2016.

Please, submit your abstract in .pdf format. The document shall include a title of your paper; theme of reference; name, surname and email address of the author (or authors); short biography (indicating your University affiliation and research areas).

All contributions shall be drafted in Italian or in English.

Important dates

Deadline for submission of abstracts: March 1, 2016.

Notification of acceptance: April 15, 2016.

Registration: May 30, 2016

Programme: July 2016.

Conference: September 22-24, 2016.

Registration procedure

Details for the registration procedure will be communicated after notification of acceptance. No registration fee is charged.

Conference location

September 22, 2016: Sala Napoleonica, Palazzo Greppi, Via S. Antonio 10, Milan.

September 23, 2016: Aula P3, Polo di Mediazione Interculturale e Comunicazione, piazza Indro Montanelli 1, Sesto S. Giovanni (MI).

September 24, 2016: Via Festa del Perdono 7, Milan.

 

Publication of conference proceedings

A peer-reviewed selection of the papers will be published.

 

Scientific Committee

Maria Matilde Luisa Benzoni, Grzegorz Franczak, Giuliana Garzone, Giovanni Iamartino, Marie Christine Jullion, Laura Scarabelli.

 

Organisational Committee

Alessandra Angelini, Stefano Apostolo, Camilla Binasco, Daniele Croci, Catia De Marco, Sara Di Alessandro, Cristina Dozio, Sandra Federici, Simona Gallo, Carla Maria Giacobbe, Chiara Lusetti, Alberto Maffini, Alessandro Mencarelli, Jekaterina Nikitina, Elisa Aurora Pantaleo, Ginevra Paparoni, Marianna Scaramucci, Marcella Uberti-Bona.

For more information, please, contact us at confini2016@unimi.it

Website: http://users.unimi.it/Confini2016

Facebook: CONfini CONtatti CONfronti

 

 

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