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The scarlet letters: Taboos of language and literature in the contemporary age (Padoue)

The scarlet letters: Taboos of language and literature in the contemporary age (Padoue)

Publié le par Vincent Ferré (Source : Université de Padoue)

PhD program in Linguistic, Philological and Literary Sciences

International conference

The scarlet letters: Taboos of language and literature in the contemporary age

Université de Padoue, 9-10 APRIL 2019

Introduction

According to the famous definition of the historian of religions Mircea Eliade, "what is called taboo […] is the fact of things', or places', or persons', being cut off, or "forbidden", because contact with them is dangerous. Generally speaking, any object, action or person which either has naturally, or acquires by some shift of ontological level, force of a nature more or less uncertain, is, or becomes, taboo." (ELIADE 1958: 15-17). The concept of taboo was initially used with reference to socio-cultural realities bounded in space and time, and it was generally perceived through the interpretative filter of Eurocentrism. It has attracted a growing critical attention in the last two centuries, thanks to the increasingly relevant heuristic role assumed by it in disciplinary fields also very distant from those in which he was originally coined and studied. Indeed, soft and hard sciences have opened wide spaces of debate around this notion originated in ethnology and anthropology, adopting specific declinations of the general theme and, with this, demonstrating its flexibility. Pursuing the interdisciplinary orientation that characterizes the research activity of the Department of Linguistic and Literary Studies of the University of Padua, the conference intends to explore the modalities of perception and (re)codification of the taboo in the contemporary age, in reference to the two main scientific areas of address: linguistics and literary studies. By "contemporary age" we intend the timeframe that initiates with the end of World War II and extends to the present day. Literary texts from any traditions are welcome. The theme, declined in one or the other sense and immersed in the contradictions that dot the time in which we live, thus assumes a particular political value, leading to ask themselves the following questions: which dialectic the technologically advanced homo politicus of the New Millennium establishes, through language and literary art, with the sphere of the ontologically “different”? With which ancient challenges is he summed to make further compromises? Has contemporaneity been able to neutralize taboos or, on the contrary, it has created new ones?

Structure of the conference

The scientific committee will consider any contribution inherent to the theme outlined and related to the different fields of study on the language, as well as to the variety of literary forms (prose, poetry, theatre, etc.). With the intention to intersect diversified methodologies and polyhedral approaches, the following research addresses will be privileged:

LINGUISTICS

● Bioethics and linguistic taboos. Man, language and illness in the contemporary world: that which "must not be said". Linguistic tabulation of the most divisive bioethical issues (e.g. incurable diseases, euthanasia, abortion, cloning, identity and sexual fluidity);

● The “politically correct” as the creation of new linguistic taboos. Relative counterreaction to this trend. Linguistic taboos and their breakdown as a basis for the construction of individual and/or collective identities;

● Linguistic taboos in translatology: problems of cultural transfer. What must (not) be translated and why;

● Linguistic taboos between formal linguistics and field research. The unknown-taboo in the formulation of theoretical models. Linguistic data and taboos: what must (not) appear in the searches and how to avoid falsifying the results.

 

LITERARY STUDIES

● Geographical and cultural taboos: the limits of the utterable within national literary traditions. The stigmatization of themes, genres, characters, situations;

● Historical-political taboos: traumatic events and dramas removed from literary imagination;

● Aesthetic-bodily taboos: formulas of excess and scandal in literature. Biological, sexual and food taboos;

● Imaginary taboos: invention and articulation of the forbidden in fiction works;

● Invisible taboos: allusive schemes and escape styles to circumvent the ban;

● Embodied taboos: affirmation or suppression of taboos of the past represented by mythical-archetypal figures of the tradition (Oedipus, Don Giovanni etc.) reactualized in contemporary literature.

The conference is divided into two days of lectures and discussions, and it involves the active participation of the following keynote speakers:

Alison Duguid (Universy of Siena)

Alan Partington (University of Bologna)

Daniele Giglioli (University of Bergamo)

 

Participation in the conference

All interested parties are invited to send their proposals via e-mail, in Italian or in English, to tabupadova@gmail.com by Sunday, 30 September 2018. A formal request for participation in the conference must be indicated in the text of the message. It must also be specified whether the contribution is meant to be a talk or a poster presentation. Two files must be attached (in .doc or .pdf format), containing respectively the following information:

1. Name and surname, academic affiliation, personal contacts and a brief biobibliographic note (maximum 150 words);

2. Abstract with title (maximum of 600 words for the ordinary talks, maximum of 400 words for the poster presentations, spaces and any bibliography excluded). Each abstract must be anonymous and devoid of any information, direct or indirect (e.g. reference to their previous works), which can trace the identity of the author. Each abstract will be subjected to a double-blind peer review by the scientific committee, which will communicate to the people concerned the successful selection by Thursday, November 15, 2018.

The languages of the conference will be Italian and English. The duration of the interventions must not exceed 25 minutes. More specific information on the eventual publication of the documents will be provided later. No registration fee is required for participation in the conference. The costs for travel and accommodation are at the expense of the participants. For any further information, please contact the address tabupadova@gmail.com.

 

References

AMALFITANO 2018. Il Piacere del Male. Le rappresentazioni letterarie di un’antinomia morale (1500-2000), 2 vols., Amalfitano, P. (edited by), Pisa, Pacini. BATAILLE 1976. Bataille, G., Literature and Evil, Hamilton, A. (translated by), London-New York, Marion Boyars. BLAKE, BLOOM 2010. The Taboo, Blake, H., Bloom, H. (edited by), New York, Chelsea House Publications. BROWN, LEVINSON 19892. Brown, P., Levinson, S. C., Politeness: Some Universals in Language Use, Cambridge-New York-New Rochelle-Melbourne-Sydney, Cambridge University Press. ELIADE 1958. Eliade, M., Patterns in Comparative Religion, Sheed, R. (translated by), London, Sheed & Ward. HORLACHER, GLOMB, HEILER 2010. Horlacher, S., Glomb, S. Heiler, L., Taboo and Transgression in British Literature from the Renaissance to the Present, New York, Palgrave Macmillan. DIPARTIMENTO DI STUDI LINGUISTICI E LETTERARI – UNIVERSITÀ DEGLI STUDI DI PADOVA 4 LAKOFF 1987. Lakoff, G., Women, Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind, Chicago-London, University of Chicago Press. LOPORCARO 2005. Loporcaro, M., Cattive notizie: la retorica senza lumi dei mass media italiani, Milano, Feltrinelli. MCENERY 2004. McEnery, T., Swearing in English: Bad Language, Purity and Power from 1586 to the Present, London-New York, Routledge. SEBALD 2003. Sebald, W. G., On the Natural History of Destruction, Bell, A. (translated by), London, Hamish Hamilton. SEMINO, DEMJÉN 2016. The Routledge Handbook of Metaphor and Language, Semino, E., Demjén, Z. (edited by), London-New York, Routledge. SITI 2001. Siti, W., Il romanzo sotto accusa // Moretti, F. (a cura di), La cultura del romanzo, Torino, Einaudi, pp. 129-192. SONTAG 1978. Sontag, S., Illness as Metaphor, New York, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux. VAN DIJK 1992. Van Dijk, T. A., Discourse and the denial of racism // Discourse & Society, Volume 3, Issue 1 (January), pp. 87-118. WIERZBICKA 1997. Wierzbicka, A., Understanding Cultures through Their Key Words: English, Russian, Polish, German, and Japanese, New York-Oxford, Oxford University Press.

The Scientific Committee

Andrea Afribo

Alessandro Metlica

Vincenzo Romania

Luca Zuliani

Pier Giovanni Adamo

Marco Biasio

Dario Del Fante

Marianna Liguori

Áureo Lustosa Guerios

Ilenia Sanna