Landscape and Identity
Call for papers for a seminar
Landscape and Identity in Contemporary British and Irish Literature
10-11 May 2024
Institute of English Studies, Jagiellonian University in Kraków Borrowing Bruno Latour’s notion of “quasi-object”, David Matless, the author of Landscape and Englishness, claims that landscape is situated “between fields of reference”, “impossible to place on either side of a dualism of nature and culture” (2005, 12). It also transcends the duality of depth and surface, time and space, the natural environment and human practices. It is in landscapes that individuals, communities and nations frequently ground their identities.
Considering this link from the perspective of contemporary Irish literature, Marie Mianowski observes that “landscape, space and place are fundamental concepts to understand the ways in which Irish fiction reflects the rapid changes of society and Irishness” (2017, 2). This seminar aims to explore the vital connection between landscape and identity, so we welcome papers that address their various intersections, interactions and interdependencies as represented in contemporary literatures of Britain and Ireland. Possible topics include but are not limited to:
- iconic landmarks and landscapes
- regional and national landscapes
- landscape and history
- landscape as a site of individual and collective memory
- palimpsestic landscapes
- landscape and heritage
- landscape and the Anthropocene
- natural and man-made landscapes
- cultural practices entangled with landscapes
- landscape and myth
- landscape and architecture
- archaeologies of landscape
- aesthetics and semiotics of landscape
We are delighted to announce that Dr Jenny Butler of University College Cork has accepted our invitation to deliver the keynote lecture.
Please, send abstracts of about 150 words with a short bio note to:
bozena.kucala@uj.edu.pl or beata.piatek@uj.edu.pl by 17 March 2024.
There is no conference fee. Participants are requested to make their own travel and accommodation arrangements.
The seminar will be held on 10-11 May 2024 in the Institute of English Studies, Jagiellonian University in Kraków, al. Mickiewicza 9 (city centre).
Organisers:
dr hab. Bożena Kucała, prof. U
dr hab. Beata Piątek, prof. UJ
dr hab. Katarzyna Bazarnik, prof. UJ
dr Katarzyna Biela