The second Bloomington Eighteenth-Century Workshop, is going to be held on 21-24 May 2003 at Indiana University. The workshop is part of a series of annual interdisciplinary events that was launched very successfully in May 2002, with 20-30 scholars presenting and discussing pre-circulated papers on a broad topic in a congenial setting.
Our topic for 2003 is "Death in the Eighteenth Century: Theory and Practice." Is there a specificity to eighteenth-century death? In what ways does death represent a limit to the social, historical, or representational imagination, or is its finality paradoxically generative? What was the cultural meaning of death as an experience, an event, and a metaphor? We hope this topic will encourage a wide range of contributions, from a variety of disciplines (including Literary Studies, History, Religion, Art History, Philosophy). Possible paper topics might include:
* Eschatology and salvation * Commemoration, memory and mourning * Corpses and bodily remains * Suicide and homicide * Funerary practices and spaces * The erotics of death * Heroic and Abject Deaths * Executions and executioners * Narratives of extinction * The medicalization of death * Death and secularization * Fake deaths, staged deaths * Death, the Gothic and the supernatural * Last words * * *
The workshop format, which has proven to be extraordinarily fruitful, will consist of intense discussion of 4-6 pre-circulated papers a day, amidst socializing and refreshment. The workshop will draw both on the wide community of eighteenth-century scholars and on the large and growing group of scholars in this field at Indiana University-Bloomington. Papers will be selected by an interdisciplinary committee. The workshop will cover most expenses of those scholars chosen to present their work: accommodations, travel (up to a certain limit) and most meals.
We are asking for paper proposals to be sent to us by the 3rd of January 2003. We would be delighted if you would consider applying for this event, and grateful if you could spread the word to anyone who might be interested, including colleagues in all relevant disciplines as well as advanced graduate students. The application consists of a two-page description of the proposed paper as well as a current CV. Please direct your application or any questions to: Dror Wahrman, Dept. of History, Ballantine Hall 742; e-mail dwahrman@indiana.edu *