Call for Papers: Cinderella Conference in Rome

Okay, this is one I really want to attend. Especially after slaving over Cinderella Tales From Around the World the last few years, which will be coming out soon. But on to the real topic of this post:

CFP: Cinderella Conference in Rome

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 Western culture. Invariably popular among the audience of children and adults alike, translated, adapted and reinvented in sometimes dramatically different versions, the story of Cinderella has been told again and again, in literature, music, theatre, film and other arts. It has also been the object of extensive scholarly research, beginning with Marian Roalfe Cox’s pioneering compendium compiled in the nineteenth century. Folklorists have recognized hundreds of distinct forms of Cinderella-related plots and subtypes throughout the Western World, and they have analysed the 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 and, more recently, feminist interpretations, alongside the influential psychoanalytical account of the significance of the tale in Bruno Bettelheim’s The Uses of Enchantment.

However while mainstream research tends to emphasise the universal values and meanings of the tale, we would like to propose a different approach by considering Cinderella in its textual nature in relation to a given geo-cultural, historical, literary and mediatic ec(h)o-system. We are particularly interested in contributions that focus on Cinderella neither as an item of folklore nor as a universal story, but rather on the many Cinderellas that have populated Western culture past and present, and in different cultural and national areas. In order to investigate these phenomena, we invite you to discuss Cinderella’s various textual metamorphoses and account for significant differences in their textual, iconographic and mediatic realisations.

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 legacy;

What is the status of Cinderella among other fairy tales? How can we account for its particular appeal? Is it somehow different from other, or similar, rise- or restoration tales?

Travelling stories and intercultural canon formation: to what extent is Cinderella a “canonical” fairy tale? Is there an international fairy tale canon?

Translatio / translation

The circulation of the tale in European culture: audience typologies and reception, manipulation and ideology, cultural translatio;

Domestication: national identity and “nationalisations” of Cinderella vs. intercultural communication through fairy tale adaptations;

Iconological and imagological interpretations of Cinderella: diachronic and synchronic aspects of the tale’s visual representations;

The literary canon and medial adaptations (Cinema, Theatre, Music, etc.);

The colloquium is international in scope and attendance. The official conference languages will be English and Italian.

Confirmed keynote 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 de la Rochère (University of Lausanne)

- 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
February 28th, 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 (at) gmail.com

Enquiries

Monika Wozniak monika.wozniak (at) uniroma1.it
or
Camilla Miglio camilla.miglio (at) uniroma1.it

Web page: http://www.cinderellaroma2012.wordpress.com/

March 30th, 2012

The notification of admission will be sent to participants.