The inter-relationship of word and image in some contemporary works of art emphasizes some of the fundamental issues in the process of representation itself, while at the same time pinpointing certain cultural, or ideological issues (the politics of race, gender, class, hegemony).

Call for Papers

The Infinite Dialogue : Redefining the Word/Image Analogy in the 20th- 21st Centuries.

23-24 September 2005

Institute of Romance Studies, Senate House (Malet Street), London

Deadline for proposals: 1 March 2005

This conference is organized jointly by SEAC (Société d'Etudes Anglaises Contemporaines) and SAIT (Société des Amis d'Intertexte), based in France, and aims to reexamine the "ut pictura poesis" theory. The inter-relationship of word and image in some contemporary works of art emphasizes some of the fundamental issues in the process of representation itself, while at the same time pinpointing certain cultural, or ideological issues (the politics of race, gender, class, hegemony). Lessing's notion of the temporal/spatial disjunction will be rethought, and particular attention will be paid to the way the iconotext seems to disrupt common views of the ontological status of the work of art (such as the distinction between the allographic and the autographic). The conference will address the question of transaction, or trans-lation, between painting and contemporary literature, between language and the image at large, as the analyses will include all types of images mediated by language (photographs, tapestries, mirrors, maps, optical instruments, etc.). The works studied should be 20th - 21st century British fiction, essays, poetry, etc., as a selection of papers will be published in the French journal Etudes Britanniques Contemporaires.

Proposals with abstracts and curriculum vitae in English should be sent by March, 1st, 2005 to Liliane Louvel and Delphine Cingal . (All papers to be delivered in English.)