Nov 8, 2006

CfP: Decadence in Central and Eastern Europe, Columbia, New York

Call for Papers:

A Leap from the Temple of Culture into the Abyss: Decadence in Central and Eastern Europe, 1880-1920

Conference at The Harriman Institute, Columbia University March 15-17, 2007

The last phase of Romanticism and the first phase of Modernism, in the West Decadence is linked with the names of Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mallarmé, Paul Verlaine, Joris-Karl Huysmans, and Oscar Wilde. It spread throughout Europe in the 1890s, intermingling with native elements in its new contexts. Serge Diaghilev
described Decadence as a leap from the temple of culture into the abyss-that is, a dramatic fall from the heights of civilization into nothingness. Decadence thus creates a myth of culture at its peak in the final days before its sudden perdition. It is an aesthetic that worships art as the highest ideal-an aesthetic of
erudition, allusion, artificiality, and literariness. Paradoxically, however, at the same time it also highlights the themes of culture in decline and the degeneration of humanity.

This conference seeks to foster a nuanced understanding of the manifestations of Decadence in central and eastern European literature, arts, and culture within a comparative context. Speakers at the conference will address questions such as how
Decadence is to be understood in the region, how it differs from the Western movement, and how it is manifested in various arts, including literature, art, ballet, and music. Individual panels will put specialists in Western Decadence into dialogue with scholars focusing on areas such as Russia, Bohemia, Poland, and Austria, among others. The suggested time frame is 1880-1920.

Please submit abstracts of up to 400 words by December 10 to Kirsten Lodge at klb57@columbia. edu and Jon Stone jcstone@berkeley. edu.

We especially welcome interdisciplinary and comparative approaches, particularly those that contextualize their subject within the pan-European decadent movement. We also encourage papers on cultural figures who have received little scholarly attention, as well as papers that discuss figures not usually considered "Decadent" within the context of the discourse of Decadence. Papers on Western, non-Slavic and underrepresented Slavic cultures are also especially welcome.

[sursa balkans]