CANADIAN SOCIETY FOR XVIIIth CENTURY STUDIES

THE UNIVERSITY OF WESTERN ONTARIO, (16-19 OCTOBER 1997)

"REPRESENTATIONS OF TIME IN THE XVIIITH CENTURY"

CALL FOR PAPERS

You can:
1) simply send a paper proposal on any topic related to the conference theme;
2) indicate you wish to join a session already proposed by a colleague;
3) try to contact colleagues and propose a session of your choice.

Possible orientations:

1) Epistemology of Time in the 18th Century
How does science in the XVIIIth century approach the question of time? What instruments are at its disposal, what theories exist? To what extent and according to what modalities do epistemological theories in the XVIIIth century propose a reflection on time? What place is given to the notion of time in the "new cosmologies" in the new science of geology, and in the emerging reflexion on biological classification?

2) Representations of Time
The goal is not to infer a mechanical relationship between epistemology and aesthetics, but rather to consider both of these in terms of a co-occurrence or of a reciprocal influence. In other words, how is time conceived of and represented within specific semiotic systems such as painting, sculpture, music, architecture and, of course, literature?
What does it mean to think about and to represent time in painting and in sculpture? What is the significance of the poetics of the ruin, of Neo-classicism, in terms of an aesthetics of temporality? What topoi of time (its passage, suspension, beginning, end) are expressed in poety and literature? How does the novel conceptualize its actantial and narrative progress? To what extent are the diverse musical theories which confront each other in the XVIIIth century a symptom of diverging conceptions of time?

3) Conceptions of History
Part one: the emergence of history as a social science. The history of ideas situates the emergence of history as a social science during the XVIIIth century. What conceptions of time and its passage appear in the wake of the new science of history? Part two: "fin de si...cle". To what extent is the "fin de si...cle" a privileged moment for reflecting on time? What political, philosophical, aesthetic, literary (etc) movements are born and what are the conclusions to be drawn about the understanding of time which informs them? Part three: history and the XVIIIth century. A reflection on time in the XVIIIth century also implies a study of its periodization. In this sense, the XVIIIth century in France, marked by the French Revolution, is very different from the XVIIIth century in England or Germany. This examination will lead to a consideration of the way in which the XIXth and XXth centuries represent the XVIIIth century (epistemological and ideological presuppositions, etc). An examination of our own presuppositions as "specialists" of the XVIIIth century will be most pertinent to this reflection, and a roundtable considering contemporary XVIIIth century studies would be most appropriate.

4) Varia
Any other topic related to the problem of time and its representation in the XVIIIth century. Please note that the above suggestions are simply an invitation to consider the problem of time in its diversity: geographic (England, Spain, Italy France, etc); periodic (beginning, end of the century, and their relationship to temporality), etc. Comparative studies and syntheses are welcome. 5) Open sessions In accordance with the tradition of the society, papers not dealing directly with the theme of the colloquium will be welcomed and included in the program.

THE PAPER PROPOSALS ARE TO BE SENT BEFORE APRIL, 30 TO:

Conference Web Site: http://www.uwo.ca/french/csecs97.html

P.S. Some sessions have been proposed by members of the association. Should they be interested, we encourage members to get in touch with the people who have proposed sessions. Nevertheless, the paper proposals have to be sent to the conference organizer, indicating the session (for those who have managed to organize one).

Sessions proposed so far (you can still organize a session by contacting interested colleagues):

• "The Eighteenth Century on the Internet", proposed by John Rempel, Univ. of Manitoba, English, Winnipeg, Manitoba, R3T 2N2/B: 204-474-9678/H: 204-261-9952/fax: 204-275-1735/ e-mail: jrempel@cc.umanitoba.ca
  
• "Time and Narratives of National History", proposed by Nergis Canefe, York University, Department of Social and Political Thought, Toronto/1083St Clarens Avenue, Toronto, M6H 3W8/tel-fax: 416-656-4554/E-mail:NGUNLUK@YORKU.CA
  
• "Jane Austen in our Time" proposed by Barbara Seeber, University of Prince Edward Island, Dpt of English, Charlottetown, PEI, C1A 4P3/ tel.902-566-0478/fax: 902-566-0363/e-mail: bseeber@upei.ca
  
• "Time and History in the Eighteenth Century Garden", proposed by Lisa Zeitz, University of Western Ontario, Dpt of English, London, N6A 3K7/tel. 519-679-2111-5869/fax: 519-661-3776/e-mail:lzeitz@julian.uwo.ca
  
  I would hope that papers on gardens in both France and England might be accomodated in this session. While my own current work on the most famous English landscape garden of the Eighteenth century --Stowe-- lies behind this proposed session, I would also want to include papers on literary representations of gardens (in either poetry of prose). For example, how does the myth of Eden contribute to representations of an idealized past (or a world transcending time) and/or an idealized future? How are the inescapable passage of tiem, and the themes of change and growth treated in real and imaginary garden spaces? What about the way in which history is represented in "national" gardens? These are some of the issues that might be addressed in papers submitted to this sessions.
  
• "Absolute Time versus Relative Time in the XVIIIth Century", proposed by Robert Walters, University of Western Ontario, Dpt of French, London, N6A 3K7.
  
• "La representation du temps chez Rousseau", proposed by Antoine Sassine, Mount Royal College/e-mail: ASASSINE@MtRoyal.AB.CA
  
• "The Consumption of Time and theProduction of Distance: Long Distance Travel, Long-Term Enterprises, and the Perception of Duration" by Kevin L. Cope, Department of English, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana, 70803, U. S. A., telephone and answering machine 504-388-2864, FAX 504-388-4129, e-mail 72310.3204@compuserve.com; and Brigitte Glaser, Englische Literaturwissenschaft, Katholische Universitaet Eichstaett, D-85072 Eichstaett, Germany, telephone 011-49-8421-931647, FAX 49-8421-931797, e-mail: sla026@eo-nwfs-1.ku-eichstaett.de
  
  This panel would allow participants to explore simultaneously a of frequently probed but seldom interrelated issues: the or "cognitive" encounter with time in a post-, reified-time environment; the experience of unavailable, long-term yet not permanent conditions activities such as sea voyages, exiles, exploratory journeys, and tourism on a grand scale or extended schedule; therepresentation of such time-extended events in literature and thearts; the relation between the consumption of time and consumption generally; incongruities of reading, travelling, andexperiential-cognitive time; feats of durability and other of the term-limits of individual humans; about ultra-long-term or preternaturally distantexploits such as space or time travel; and many other matters to that new range of Enlightenment experience, the long-term.
  
• "Le temps et le voyage au XVIIIe siecle/Time and Travel in the XVIIIth Century", proposed by Christine Roulston, UWO, French, London, N6A 3K7/ tel. 519-661-2163/fax: 519-661-3470/E-mail: croulsto@julian.uwo.ca
  
• "Temps et utopie au XVIIIe siecle/Time and Utopia in the XVIIIth Century", proposed by Helen Heller, Brescia College, Dpt of French, UWO, London/tel. 519-432-8353 (277)/fax: 519-679-6489
  
• "Musique et temporalite au XVIIIe siecle/Music and Temporality in the XVIIIth Century", proposed by Lane Heller, UWO, French, London, N6A 3K7/ tel. 519-661-2163/fax: 519-661-3470
  
• "Le XVIIIe siecle vu par la posterite/The Posterity of the Eighteenth Century", proposed by Jean-Yves Dupraz, UWO, French, London, N6A 3K7/ tel. 519-661-2163/fax: 519-661-3470/ e-mail: artjyd@uwoadmin.uwo.ca

Copyright ©1996-2002, H-Soz-u-Kult · Humanities · Sozial- und Kulturgeschichte

Termine 97