04.11.2008

CfP: Int. Conf. "Pasolini and Fassbinder: the European legacy between utopia and nihilism"

  • Ort: Cardiff
  • Beginn: 24.06.09
  • Ende: 26.04.09
  • Disziplinen: Medien-/Kulturwissenschaft
  • Sprachen: Italienisch
  • Frist: 01.12.08

Proposals for papers (approx 150 words) are invited on any comparative

aspect of Pasolini's and Fassbinder's work, including the following (the list is

indicative):

 

- Class, race, sexuality

- Religion

- Anarchy

- Revolution

- Mythology

- Nationalism

- Cultural memory

- Comedy and/or tragedy

- Violence

- High/popular culture

- European dimension

 

Pasolini and Fassbinder are amongst the last radical authors to have emerged

in Europe. Born in Italy and Germany, they inherited a traumatic social and

political past which they chose to address either directly or via different

topics related to the cultural memory of Europe. The link between law and

violence is, for instance, a central preoccupation in their works, illustrating

what Georg Simmel called "the tragedy of culture". This tragic dimension is

reflected in their aesthetics through a number of similarly articulated and

unresolved tensions: high and popular cultures, theatre, literature and cinema,

ideology and narration, major and minor codes of expression.

 

The uncompromising character of Pasolini's and Fassbinder's work, fluctuating

between utopia and nihilism (but also tradition and revolution, mythology and

realism) encourages us to reconsider subjective and collective questions which

from today's perspective seem lost forever. These questions are often

unconsciously embedded in their work and require critical interventions aimed

at locating them against the grain of conventional criticism. To only look at

these questions in the context of the sixties and seventies and their climate

of revolt misses the scope of the two authors' creative undertakings.

 

The cinemas of Pasolini and Fassbinder present a number of common features

that have generally been neglected by commentators. Our conference aims to

focus on these features, unravelling their potential to speak for a European

identity to come. We believe that the comparison of Pasolini's and Fassbinder's

cinemas might provoke us into asking difficult yet pressing questions such

as 'What is the European culture today?' or 'What does it mean to be

European?'

 

Organisers: Alexis Nuselovici, Fabio Vighi (Cardiff University)

Venue: Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff, UK

 

Please send your proposals to Fabio Vighi vighif@cardiff.ac.uk and/or Alexis

Nuselovici nuselovicia@cardiff.ac.uk by 1st December 2008 or contact us for

further information.

 

Dr Fabio Vighi

School of European Studies

65-68 Park Place

Cardiff University

CF10 3AS

Cardiff, Wales

UK

Tel: 029 20875605

Von:  Fabio Vighi

Publiziert von: Kai Nonnenmacher