CALL FOR PAPERS
“I International Seminar on (Neo-)Victorian Studies in Spain: VINS Network”
Universidad de Málaga (Spain)
10-12 May 2017
Theme: (Neo-)Victorian Hospitality
In her recent ethical approach to late-Victorian fiction Narrative Hospitality in Late Victorian Fiction: Novel Ethics (2013), Rachel Hollander has pointed out “an ethics of hospitality, in which respecting the limits of knowledge and welcoming the stranger define fiction’s relationship to both reader and world” (1). Drawing upon Levinas’s ethical conception of the ‘Other’ and Derrida’s notion of ‘hospitality’ and his reading of Levinasian ethics, Hollander moves beyond traditional configurations of hospitality as limited to the ‘host/stranger’ encounter in the domestic sphere to delve into wider debates on empathy, difference and the politics of space in ‘self/other’ relations. This seminar, the first international event attached to the research network VINS (https://vins-network.org/), will similarly explore wider conceptions of hospitality in Victorian and neo-Victorian fiction and culture. We therefore welcome papers dealing with literal and metaphorical readings of hospitality in Victorian and neo-Victorian studies, dealing not only with home and the relation between domestic and public spheres but also with the receptiveness of contemporary fiction to the Victorian past and Spain as a hospitable country that opens itself to the other, the visitor, the guest, but also to the Victorian presence.
Possible topics may include (but are not limited to):
- Hospitality, following Emmanuel Levinas and Jacques Derrida.
- Hospitality in relation to home and domesticity.
- Hospitality as relationship between host/hostess – guest/visitor
- Hospitality to the (Victorian) past
- Hospitality vs. Hostility (Victorian/Non-Victorian; European/Non-European)
We welcome abstracts (250-300 words) for 20-minute papers to be submitted by the 7th of April 2017 to NetworkVINS@gmail.com. Acceptance of proposals will be notified by mid-April. For any queries, do not hesitate to contact the organisers at the same email address.
Confirmed keynote speakers: Dr. Birgitta Berglund (Lund University, Sweden), Dr. Marie-Luise Kohlke (Swansea University, UK), Dr. Patricia Pulham (University of Portsmouth, UK).
Organisers (VINS Network):
Professor Rosario Arias (Universidad de Málaga, Spain).
Dr. Antonio Ballesteros González (UNED, Spain).
Professor María Jesús Lorenzo Modia (Universidade da Coruña, Spain).
Dr. Laura Monrós Gaspar (Universitat de València, Spain).
Dr. Sonia Villegas López (Universidad de Huelva, Spain).
The final academic programme can be downloaded here.
