The aim of this symposium is to elucidate the current ‘metareferential turn’ in the arts and media (high ‘meta-art’ as well as ‘meta-pop’) from both a functional and a cultural-historical perspective.
Issues to be considered are:
• collecting and interpreting relevant cases of metareference in contemporary arts and media, especially where this has not been done so far to a sufficient degree;
• exploring major functions and effects of metaization in contemporary arts and media;
• embedding the current metareferential turn in the general cultural-historical development of ‘metaization’, and finding possible reasons for its appearance.

Papers (30 minutes, in English) dealing with any of these topics are welcome, especially when they go beyond a discussion of ‘metafiction’; yet all papers ought to address the functions of metaization in our world and/or the question of how to explain the current metareferential turn.
For detailed information on ‘metareference’ and a preceding conference on this subject please visit our website at http://metareference.uni-graz.at.

Abstracts of 300 to 500 words and a short CV including an indication of academic affiliation should be sent to metareference@uni-graz.at by February 16, 2009.