CFP: Representations of the Danube in Literature and the Arts (Panel, FLLS Conference, Bucharest, 25-26 November 2022)

Monica Manolachi Discussion
Type: 
Call for Papers
Date: 
November 1, 2022
Location: 
Romania
Subject Fields: 
Art, Art History & Visual Studies, European History / Studies, Film and Film History, Literature, Popular Culture Studies

The Annual Conference of the Faculty of Foreign Languages and Literatures 

University of Bucharest, Romania, 25-26 November 2022

Panel: Representations of the Danube in Literature and the Arts

From the Black Forest to the Black Sea, the Danube crosses ten countries and four capital cities, forming a site of cultural memory, both fluid because of the natural features of the river and static because of the lands it connects. From epoch to epoch, the Danube has sparked the imagination of many writers and artists that left us a rich artistic heritage, whose disparate locations invite us to travel and explore.

The river Danube is an essential element in defining and shaping the geographical, environmental, historical and political landscape of Central and Eastern Europe. Therefore, the study of the cultural phenomena of the Danube region is meant to increase our awareness of belonging to a diverse common tradition and to get inspiration from the natural relationships the river represents.

Future participants are invited to present papers that explore the artistic cultures of the Danube in verbal, visual and aural forms – such as prose, poetry, drama, graphic novels, comics, documentaries, feature films, photography, painting, sculpture, installation art, music etc. – examining the signifying systems they use, the imagery on which they draw, their audiences, their social and historical contexts, and the further discourses they bring about.

Possible topics associated with the Danube may include, but are not limited to, the following:

  • literary history and cultural memory
  • myths and legends, fantasy and science fiction
  • translation and intercultural history
  • film and dramatic adaptations
  • rhythms, meter and prosody in poetry and music
  • linguistic diversity and cultural hybridity
  • popular culture
  • relationship between genre and place
  • social dimensions such as class, ethnicity, race, gender, religion, community
  • political regimes and narratives of resistance or dislocation
  • national, transnational, cosmopolitan and multicultural identities
  • wars, conflicts and disputes
  • individual and collective trauma
  • urban, rural and natural landscapes
  • family, kinship and domestic spaces
  • posthuman representations
  • boundaries, borders and mental space
  • flora and fauna
  • natural disasters and ecocriticism
  • ecological intervention and water conservation
  • travel writing and mobility up and down the river
  • migrants, exiles, refugees, asylum seekers
  • festivals, customs and traditions
  • shipwrecks, death and suicide
  • childhood, maturity and old age
  • old and new technologies
  • industrial and commercial history

Authors are invited to send a 250-word abstract, 5 keywords, a short bibliography and a 100-word bio by 1 November 2022 to the panel organizer, Monica Manolachi, University of Bucharest. Speakers may participate online or onsite. A selection of articles based on the presentations will be published in a themed volume.