LCIR2020

Call for Papers

International Conference on Poetry Studies: “Poetry Between Creation and Interpretation“ 19 September 2020 – St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford  organised by London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research

Poetry is a constant, being produced by all known civilisations from ancient to modern times. Throughout its extensive history, the individual art of high emotions sublimated into perfect language has approached a vast array of subject matters, including love, war, social issues, the beauty of nature, etc. A particular exercise of the mind and soul, and a unique way of apprehending reality, poetry is a self-sufficient universe that intensifies and enlarges life experience. Pointing to inner knowledge rather than real circumstance, it activates different layers of perception, sweeps away human thoughts, feeds emotions and soothes suffering.

Poetry inspires as well as instructs, as it is an initiation into the concealed order of the world. Its intense gratification, unrivalled in authenticity and honesty, appeals to human nature and makes ultimate sense of the self, opening the individual to interaction and communication. Poetry ennobles, enlightens and entertains because its expressive boundaries are virtually unlimited. With the help of translation, it goes beyond strict localisation and cultural arbitrariness, generating a sense of spiritual compatibility and communion between the collective identities of the world.

The conference aims to bring together international poets, literary critics, translators and scholars from diverse contexts and interdisciplinary fields to share their work. As the 2020 edition is dedicated to issues related to poetry, poetics and translation, we invite papers, presentations, manuscripts, panels, roundtables, performances, and other forms of contributions relevant to the areas of investigation.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

• from Aristotelian poetics to 21st century aesthetics
• poiesis, mimesis, kinesis
• (non-)originality/individuality/voice amidst technical innovation
• subject-construction in poetry
• gender and poetic imagination
• tropes and schemes of the 21th century
• hybrid & cross-genre poetic modes
• the immeasurable and/or non-measurable in poetry
• form, proportion and balance: long poems, poetic sequences
• ekphrasis and ideology
• poetry and the arts: poetic and artistic collaborations
• poetry and science
• poetry and architecture
• poetry and mathematics
• language-centered poetics (including Language- and post-Language writing)
• conceptual and post-conceptual poetry
• urban poems and poetry
• poetics and politics
• poethics and theopoetics
• ecopoetics and ecocriticism
• performance or performative?
• sound and silence
• poetry between phrase and metaphrase
• translation, inerpretation, adaptation
• the translatability of metaphors
• limits and limitations of the poetic discourse
• the role(s) of the reader
• poetry ages and generations
• publishing poetry today

Paper proposals up to 250 words and a brief biographical note should be sent by 30 April 2020 to: poetry@lcir.co.uk.

Please download paper proposal form.

Registration fee – 100 GBP       

Conference venue: St Anne’s College, University of Oxford, 56 Woodstock Rd, Oxford  OX2 6HS