The conference will take place on December 7-8, 2017 at the Institute of Literary Research (Nowy Świat 72, Pałac Staszica) in Warsaw, Poland. We are interested primarily in exploring the positive aspects of misunderstandings in communication – unlike the approaches that have traditionally emphasized the destabilizing and destructive impact of such interferences. We would like to show the mistakes and misunderstandings in communication as an undervalued source of innovation in culture. We treat misunderstanding and various semantic shifts as mechanisms of intercultural contact that are permanent, inherent, and impossible to eliminate; they are inscribed in the broadly defined translation process.

Argument

On behalf of the Historical Poetics Department of the Institute of Literary Research of the Polish Academy of Sciences and the Board of the Foundation "Center for International Polish Studies," we would like to invite you to participate in an international interdisciplinary conference "Poetics of (Mis)understanding: Culture-Making Potential of Interference in Artistic Communication." The conference will take place on December 7-8, 2017 at the Institute of Literary Research ( Nowy Świat 72, Pałac Staszica) in Warsaw, Poland.

We are interested primarily in exploring the positive aspects of misunderstandings in communication – unlike the approaches that have traditionally emphasized the destabilizing and destructive impact of such interferences. Together with you, we would like to show the mistakes and misunderstandings in communication as an undervalued source of innovation in culture. We treat misunderstanding and various semantic shifts as mechanisms of intercultural contact that are permanent, inherent, and impossible to eliminate; they are inscribed in the broadly defined translation process.

We want to reflect upon communication that is para-, between-, and beyond language; that is (inter)cultural, literary and artistic. We would be particularly interested in approaches within the areas of literary criticism, anthropology, cultural and translation studies. We treat all philosophical, sociological, communication, and cognitive perspectives as a context for issues in the fields of literature, culture, and translation.

We propose to discuss the following:

• Misunderstanding as a communication event and transparent, often underestimated or unnoticed form of contact – its causes, contexts, mechanisms, and possible positive effects;

• Misunderstandings and distortions of meaning in the process of interlingual, intercultural, and intersemiotic translation as an inherent element and a constant value in communication;
• Historicity of misunderstandings;
• Interferences in the transfer of knowledge and cultural forms as a source of new ideas/forms of expression;
• Misunderstanding and incomprehension/incomprehensibility as artistic strategies;
• Cultural representations of misunderstanding and incomprehension;
• The dynamics of misunderstanding: momentariness, scale ratio, and gradualness vs. processuality/relativity of the understandable and the incomprehensible;
• The status and possible value assessment of misunderstandings and incomprehensions in different theories of artistic communication;
• Historically variable interpretations of the role of misunderstanding and of incomprehensible cultural texts;
• Strategies and effects of combining native cultural tradition with what is foreign/new and misunderstood or understood fractionally, what is distorted;
• "Reception barriers" in translation (cultural, historical, religious, and genre strangeness);
• Cultural reevaluations of translations originally regarded as misguided /misleading/wrong;
• Historical models of experimental translations that deliberately distort the original;
• The boundaries of (mis)understanding vs. the boundaries of interpretation of  artistic statements – alternative proposals to variants of the poststructuralist theory of misreading.

Submission guidelines

Please, send your paper proposals in the form of an abstract in English (up to 200 words) to: poetyki.nieporozumienia@gmail.com

by September 15, 2017.

We will inform you of whether your proposal has been accepted by September 30, 2017. 

Practical information

The languages of the conference will be Polish and English (the latter preferred due to the planned post-conference monograph in English). We plan a conference (fee 150 euro). We will not be able to cover travel and accommodation costs.

Further information will be posted successively on the website of the Institute of Literary Research: http://ibl.waw.pl.

Selection committee

• Magdalena Rembowska-Płuciennik, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Historical Poetics, Vice President, "Center for International Polish Studies" Foundation, Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences

Nowy Swiat St. 72, room 128

00-330 Warsaw, Poland

rembowskapluciennik@gmail.com

• Tamara Brzostowska-Tereszkiewicz, Associate Professor, President, "Center for International Polish Studies" Foundation, Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences

Nowy Swiat St. 72, room 128

00-330 Warsaw, Poland

tamara_brzostowska@wp.pl

• Beata Śniecikowska, Ph.D. Conference Secretary, Vice President, "Center for International Polish Studies" Foundation, Institute of Literary Research, Polish Academy of Sciences

Nowy Swiat St. 72, room 128

00-330 Warsaw, Poland

beata.sniecikowska@gmail.com