Blank spaces. A Survey on absence
Spazi bianchi. Indagine sull’Assenza
Published on Thursday, February 02, 2017
Abstract
Lacuna is the term which conventionally refers to the void generated, within a text, by the loss of some elements: letters, words or even sentences. It is a cavity collecting a writing suspension able to compromise the whole discourse meaning. However, the lack of words is not always identifiable as a space of incongruence or philological desperatio. Rather, it can emerge as a representational criterion and be defined as the result of external contingencies or as a voluntary or unaware communication forswearing.
Announcement
Date and location
Salerno, 6th-7th July 2017
University of Salerno, Fisciano Campus
Aula Nicola Cilento
Keynote speakers
- Nicola Gardini, University Of Oxford
- Enrico Terrinoni, University For Foreigners Of Perugia
- Anna Maria Thornton, University Of L’aquila
Argument
Lacuna is the term which conventionally refers to the void generated, within a text, by the loss of some elements: letters, words or even sentences. It is a cavity collecting a writing suspension able to compromise the whole discourse meaning. However, the lack of words is not always identifiable as a space of incongruence or philological desperatio. Rather, it can emerge as a representational criterion and be defined as the result of external contingencies or as a voluntary or unaware communication forswearing. The blank space caused by word loss, omission or negation thus becomes a concrete representation of the unexpressed and a metaphorical principle for a reflection on absence.
The Graduate Conference Dipsum proposes an interweaving investigation on this topic, involving different scientific fields (literature, linguistics, philology, history of art and media, anthropology, etc.) and resorting to either newer or well-established methodological perspectives. The aim is that of outlining a meaningful frame of the topic proposed in the context of an interdisciplinary dialogue.
Some of the focal points of the Conference are reported below:
1. Discoursive absence
- Textual lacunae: ecdotic problems and exegetic implications
- Censorship, self-censorship and other forms of repression
- Absence of forms, absence of meanings
- Allegoric and symbolic writing
- Untranslatability
2. Linguistic and expressive voids
- Ellipsis, reticence, inferences, euphemisms, presuppositions
- Aphasia and other speech disorders
- Linguistic erosion and phenomena of phonetic, morphosyntactic and semantic loss
- The non-place of standards: dialects, regionalisms and subtractive bilingualism
- Absence of words: verbal, non-verbal, paraverbal language
3. The spaces of absence
- The invisible space: para-world, fictional space and creative places
- The aesthetics of absence: the representation of grief, loss and lack
- Repressed memory in chronicles, historiography, biography and autobiography
- Horror vacui or dissimulated absence
- Uprooting and alterity
Submission guidelines
Please, note that the topics listed above have a merely indicative function. Conveniently reasoned suggestions, which might point out further related issues or topics intermingling with the ones mentioned, will be very welcome.
All PhD students and doctors interested are asked to send in an abstract in both .doc and .pdf formats of 300-500 words, title and possible references excluded, to gradconfdipsum@unisa.it
by 30th March 2017.
Abstracts should also include:
- applicant’s name and surname,
- e-mail address,
- affiliation,
- position,
and reference to the thematic area of the contribution.
The organizing committee will send notification of acceptance not later than 30th April 2017.
Accepted speakers will have 15-20 minutes to present their contribution, which will subsequently have to be submitted for the Conference Proceedings publication. Both talks and essays can be presented in all the languages of the PhD programme (Italian, English, French, German, Spanish).
All expenses will have to be covered by participants. For further information, please, visit the dedicated page on the university website or send an email to the Committee (gradconfdipsum@unisa.it).
Organizing Committee
- Alfonsina Buoniconto
- Raffaele Cesaro
- Francesca D’Angelo
- Ljubica Leone
- Eriberto Russo
- Gerardo Salvati
Subjects
- Language (Main category)
- Mind and language > Language > Linguistics
- Mind and language > Language > Literature
Places
- Via Giovanni Paolo II, 132
Salerno, Italian Republic (84084)
Date(s)
- Thursday, March 30, 2017
Attached files
Keywords
- absence, void, blank space
Contact(s)
- Eriberto Russo
courriel : eriberto [dot] russo [at] gmail [dot] com - DIPSUM Unisa Graduate Conference
courriel : gradconfdipsum [at] unisa [dot] it
Reference Urls
Information source
- Eriberto Russo
courriel : eriberto [dot] russo [at] gmail [dot] com
License
This announcement is licensed under the terms of Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal.
To cite this announcement
« Blank spaces. A Survey on absence », Call for papers, Calenda, Published on Thursday, February 02, 2017, https://doi.org/10.58079/wtk
