CFP: Literature, Philosophy, and Commerce in Europe and the Americas (12/12/04; 4/7/05-4/9/05)

        Call for papers

        LITERATURE, PHILOSOPHY, AND COMMERCE
        IN EUROPE AND THE AMERICAS, 1750-1900
        Stanford University, April 7-9, 2005

The aim of the conference is to explore the impact of the eighteenth=20
century financial and consumerist revolutions upon the moral and=20
artistic systems of representation in Europe and the Americas. We=20
request papers which develop new approaches to the relationship=20
between literature (including visual texts, legal and oral literature)=20=

and philosophy and the commercial world, and that highlight the=20
geographical and temporal multidirectionality of the processes of=20
exchange. By bringing together scholars of European, Latin American and=20=

U. S. cultures, we intend to compare recent redefinitions of property,=20=

credit (and other forms of fictitious wealth), the stock market,=20
luxuries, fashion, and the rhetorical and visual techniques employed to=20=

represent them. The simultaneity and interpenetration of the new,=20
complex financial tools with =93archaic=94 practices, and the=20
interconnections between modern commerce and age-old slavery, for=20
instance, might be seen then not as distinct teleological stages but as=20=

complementary. Ultimately we hope to question received categories=20
assumed in looking at the intersections of literature, philosophy and=20
the material world, the development of capitalism and its cultural=20
justifications, and the consolidation of =93national literatures=94 as =
the=20
paradigmatic mode of our discipline. Special attention will be given to=20=

studies that involve gender, sexuality, race and geographical location.

Possible topics include: literature and property; linguistic and=20
literary problems of representing the circulation of persons and=20
things; techniques of display in market and cities; travel and tourism=20=

across the Atlantic; literature, advertising and visual culture;=20
exhibitions; literature and consumption practices; philosophy and=20
financial metaphors; bodies as commodities; fashion, luxury and the=20
literary constructions of race and ethnicity; =93importing=94 political=20=

economy; indigenous cultures and the new trade world.

Papers of approximately twenty minutes are invited covering any period=20=

from the eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. Abstracts=20
of no more than two hundred words should be sent to Richard Rosa=20
(rosa_at_stanford.edu), L=FAcia S=E1 (lusa_at_stanford.edu) or Arthur Strum=20
(strum_at_stanford.edu) by December 12, 2004.

Richard Rosa, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Stanford University.

Lucia S=E1, Department of Spanish and Portuguese, Stanford University.

Arthur Strum, Department of German Studies, Stanford University.

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Received on Wed Sep 08 2004 - 16:48:00 EDT