Textual Journeys: Departure, Danger, Discovery

Readers and authors entering a text, characters traveling within a text and researchers traversing the world for a text perform a personal journey that can be an individual or a collective experience. This conference opens a space for unraveling and analyzing the various aspects of journeys in literary and artistic realms from a literal meaning, the physical act of traveling or discovering the world, to a figurative meaning, the Bildung, the passage from one state to another, whether it be theoretical, gender related, religious, or other.

Expectations, anxiety, delusion, excitement, and apprehension recur throughout a journey, defining the uniqueness of the travelers’ adventures from departure, through danger, and to discovery. These three major steps may be considered by the presenters separately or altogether, underlining how crucial the notion of journey is for literary and artistic texts. We welcome papers on other topics, as well.

Keynote speakers for the 2011 Carolina Conference are Anne Deneys-Tunney (French), Roberta Morosini (Italian) and Leonardo Padura Fuentes (Spanish). A reading will be given by author Maria Laurino.

Abstracts must be submitted by December 15, 2010. Abstracts are limited to 250 words and must be submitted online at: ccrl.unc.edu

Papers or panels on all aspects of literature and film in French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Comparative Literature will be considered. Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. Individual presentations should be limited to 20 minutes.

Exceptional papers by both graduate students and professors will be considered for publication in Romance Notes.