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In Search of (Non)Sense |
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Literary Pragmatics — Discourse Analysis Reader Response Theories – Stylistics-Poetics-Rhetoric Literary Syntax-Text Grammars — Narratology Literary Semiotics — Philosophy of Language Literary Hermeneutics — Sociolinguistics Literary Translation — Psycholinguistics Literary Criticism — Cognitive Studies Fourth Conference Institute of English Philology, The Jagiellonian University of Kraków, Poland Thursday 12 October – Saturday 14 October 2006 Keynote Speakers:
In the 14th year of its activities the International Association of Literary Semantics (IALS) moves eastwards, to the Jagiellonian University of Kraków, the oldest university in Poland and one of the oldest such institutions in Europe (founded in 1364). The first two IALS conferences, held at the University of Kent at Canterbury (1992) and at the University of Freiburg, Germany (1997) brought together around three hundred scholars from several dozen countries around the world. They also made us aware of the fact that literary semantics, a highly specialized linguistic discipline, can and should deal with a wealth of theoretical and practical problems. The last conference at the University of Birmingham (2002) centred on the methodological issues, such as the scope of literary semantics and its theoretical framework. The conference clearly demonstrated that literary semantics can fruitfully draw from different linguistic orientations: traditional, structural, cognitive, functional, and systemic, to mention only some well-established currents. Literary semanticists proved that they are capable of arguing contrastively over several issues – from different standpoints, yet in a congenial atmosphere. This time we would like to focus our attention on two sets of problems. Firstly, should literary semantics – the linguistic study of texts / discourses marked with the feature of ‘literariness’ and ‘poeticity’ – strive after an interpretation of all such texts at all costs? Are all literary texts interpretable? How do we, as literary semanticists, cope with such troublesome linguistic phenomena as anomaly, deviance, absurdity, which result in aporias and estrangement? Aren’t we, by any chance, fascinated by nonsense? Do we try to make it at least partly meaningful? Is interpretability our default value? Secondly, while trying to answer these questions, well-aware of the fact that literary semantics is a fuzzy branch of linguistic studies (albeit with a well-defined core), we may attempt at exploring its borderline zone to see to what extent we have to draw from other theoretical sources and to what degree we are able to keep literary semantics autonomous. The questions above are only general suggestions as to the conference theme and should not, by any means, limit your inventiveness. We warmly invite you to Kraków to discuss these and related issues in an international company of academics. The Conference venue will be the historic rooms of our University, very close to the city centre. We need not recommend Kraków to you as it is one of the most beautiful and famous places in Poland, the spiritual capital of our country, boasting a lively intellectual and artistic milieu. Last but not least, remember that the Kraków airport (Balice) is linked to many places in Europe by cheap airlines! The Conference will be enriched with accompanying events such as the performance of The Miller’s Tale by the Chaucer Man (Prof. Trevor Eaton) and on the more modern side, by a show of liberature – the art of unusual bookmaking. Most certainly, we have not forgotten about less scholarly entertainments: a wine party in Stuba Communis of the medieval Collegium Maius on Thursday night and the Conference dinner on Friday night. The Saturday programme will include a sightseeing tour of Kraków for all the interested Conference Participants. Proposals for sessions and panels are still invited. Session and panel convenors are kindly requested to step forward by 15 May 2006 (the ultimate deadline). Papers accepted for presentation at the conference will be announced individually at the end of May, 2006. Offers of papers: Abstracts/outlines, 350-400 words in length, should contain the title and the information about the speaker: name, university affiliation, contact address (especially e-mail). We plan to publish The Book of Abstracts to accompany the conference. The abstracts should be sent electronically. Deadline: 15 May 2006. We also intend to publish a volume of The Conference Proceedings following the Conference – the Stylesheet will appear on our web page in due time. Please, check this page for the successively added information about the conference details. With best regards, Local conference organisers: Dr. Elżbieta Chrzanowska-Kluczewska (echklucz@vela.filg.uj.edu.pl) Dr. Grzegorz Szpila (grzegorzszpila@go2.pl) |
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© Institute of English Philology, The Jagiellonian University of Kraków, Poland |
