Conference: Cinderella as a Text of Culture

Cinderella as a Text of Culture

International Conference

University of Rome, “La Sapienza”

November, 8-10th 2012

Cinderella is one of the most beloved and well-known tales in the Western culture. Invariably popular among the audience of children and adults alike, translated, adapted and reinvented in sometimes dramatically different versions, Cinderella’s story has been told again and again, in literature, in music, in theatre, in film and in other arts. It has also been the object of an extensive scholar research, beginning with Marian Roalf Cox’s pioneering compendium compiled in the nineteenth century. Folklorists have recognized hundreds of distinct forms of Cinderella’s plots and subtypes throughout the Western World, and they have analysed form and typology of the tale, as well as its development through time. Many methodological approaches have been applied to Cinderella, such as ritual, structural, anthropological, sociological or – more recently – feminist interpretations, while one of the most extensive psychoanalytical readings of the tale is to be found in Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment.

However while the mainstream of the research puts an emphasis on the universal values and meanings of the tale, we would like to propose a different approach and to consider Cinderella in its textual nature, as a product related to a given geo-cultural, historical and literary and mediatic ec(h)o-system. We are particularly interested in contributions In other words, the focus of the proposed seminar is neither the Cinderella as an item of folklore nor the universal meaning of the tale, but rather the many Cinderellas that have populated past and present Western culture and the different national literatures. In order to investigate these phenomena in greater depth, we would like to invite you to discuss Cinderella’s various textual metamorphoses. Topics and questions that may be addressed include:

Giambattista Basile – Charles Perrault – Grimm brothers: textual interconnections and interactions;

Grimm’s Aschenputtel versus Perrault’s Cendrillon as literary texts: affinities and differences, reception and fortune;

What is the status of Cinderella tale among other fairy tales? What are the reasons of its particular appeal? Is it somehow different from other, similar rise- or restoration tales?

Travelling stories and intercultural canon formation (what does it mean that Cinderella is a “canonical” fairy tale? Does an international canon of fairy tales truly exist?)

Translatio / translation
Audience typologies and reception, manipulation and ideology, cultural translatio;

Domestication, its function and the question of national identity: the “nationalisations” of Cinderella; intercultural communication through adaptations of fairy tales;
Iconological and imagological lecture of Cinderella: diachronical and synchronical aspects of tale’s visual representations

The literary canon and medial adaptation (Cinema, Theatre, Music)

The Conference is international in scope and attendance. The official conference language will be English and Italian.

Confirmed key speakers:

Ruth Bottigheimer (Stony Brook University)
Andrea Andermann (director and producer, Rada Film-RAI Radiotelevisione Italiana)

The conference is hosted by the University of Roma “La Sapienza” Department of European, American and Intercultural Studies

Organization
Scientific Committee
- Francesca Bernardini (University of Rome “La Sapienza”)
- Johanna Borek (University of Wien)
- Ruth Bottigheimer (Stony Brook University)
- Martine Hennard Dutheil (University of Lousanne)
- Vanessa Joosen (University of Antwerp)
- Gillian Lathey (Roehampton University, London)
- Jan Van Coillie (Hogeschool-Universiteit Brussel)
- Monika Wozniak (University of Rome “La Sapienza”)

Local Organizing Committee
Camilla Miglio, Martine van Geetruyden, Monika Wozniak (University of Rome “La Sapienza”)

Deadlines
January 31th, 2012
Deadline for the proposal of conference papers, with the submission of a 300-400 word abstract (in English) and a short bionote including the following information:
1. Postal address
2. E-mail address
3. Academic affiliation

The abstracts should be sent to the following e-mail address: cinderella.roma2012@gmail.com

Enquiries
Monika Wozniak monika.wozniak@uniroma1.it
or
Camilla Miglio camilla.miglio@uniroma1.it

March 30th, 2012
The notification of admission will be sent to participants.