Conference: *ROMANTIC INTERMEDIALITY*
Conference venue: University of Helsinki
Date: 24.-26.11. 2011
Romanticism was a significant era in the definition of artistic interdisciplinarity. In Germany, Friedrich Schlegel’s concept of /universal poetry/ introduced a more synthetic awareness of arts and knowledge. In England, Coleridge’s idea of /intermedium/ put forward an idea of dynamism as a significant element of art and aesthetic contexts. It was during this period that writers, artists and composers began to experiment with aesthetic forms and to defy artistic limitations. This implied that literary, pictorial or musical genre did not consist of a given set of rules but was created by the artist. Brentano, Keats, Blake and Schubert, for example, undertook such redefinitions of genre in their works which combine poetry/visual arts/music.
In this conference we intend to find out more about Romantic artistic interdisciplinarity as it is found in both theory and praxis. By locating the Romantic arts within contemporary discussions concerning intermediality, we are interested in mapping how various intermedial relations had an impact on ways of narrating/composing/illustrating. The rising role of mediality (journals, networks), as well, belongs to the interests of this conference with James Cisneros (Université de Montréal) and Peter Wagner (University of Landau) among the plenary speakers. Also, we want to find out more about the reception of Romantic intermediality during the latter part of the 19^th Century, in Modernism and subsequently in the Post-modern era.
The papers of this conference are to be published as an anthology.
Please send your abstract (200-300 words) by the end of August to Dr Leena Eilittä (leena.eilitta@helsinki.fi).
Organizing Committee:
Henry Bacon, Professor of Film and Media Studies, University of Helsinki
Klaus Brax, Doctor of Comparative Literature, University of Helsinki
Leena Eilittä, Docent of Comparative Literature, University of Helsinki
Heta Pyrhönen, Professor of Comparative Literature, University of Helsinki
Lauri Suurpää, Professor of Music Theory, Sibelius Academy