Whims of the wind - International conference, Viterbo, Tuscia
Due to the anthropic causes of the present-day climatic changes, and moving from the debated idea of an ecological crisis connected to a crisis of sensibility, linked to the raising of Eco-criticism and Eco-poetics, the attention on atmospheric elements and hints in literary texts, arts and history, as well as in the esthetical debate, is growing more and more.
Wind is certainly more than an atmospheric phenomenon, the shape of its contours in words and images, its symbolic and metaphoric density, its ancestral connotation forged by myths, the narrative and lyrical movements it gives life to are a constant and unexamined presence. The topos of the tempest excepted, wind often plays a minor role, it is an ephemeral but meaningful presence, a background more than a prominent figure: wind and its anthropomorphic projections are able to enliven spaces and inspire an atmosphere, induce an emotional tone, suggest a poietic direction, preconize facts and also reveal feelings connected to a place.
The International Conference Whims of the Wind - I capricci dell'aria will take place in Viterbo, University of Tuscia, the 24th and 25th of November 2021. It aims to promote a plural discourse on narration and representation of wind as a cross-knot between different disciplines, proceeding by glitches and associative jumps, intertextuality, intermediality, and moving on a new exploration of the theme through multiple examples in modern and contemporary literature and in visual and performing arts. Young and confirmed researchers are invited to propose original contributions due to renew the study of the figure in the topics of literature, arts history, aesthetics, cultural history and imaginary studies, as well as in philosophy of image and discourse analysis. The comparative and inter- or transmedial approaches will be particularly appreciated. Participants will be later invited to submit longer papers for a collection of essays. The Conference will be held in presence or in mixed-mode, according to the Covid situation.
To participate
Proposals, in English or Italian, should be sent in .doc and .pdf with title, abstract (400-500 words) and a
short biobibliographical presentation. Due date is 31st July 2021 to the following address:
convegno.vento@gmail.com Notifications of acceptance will be sent by August 20th.
Organizing Committee
Paola Del Zoppo – Università degli Studi della Tuscia
Rosanna Gangemi – Université libre de Bruxelles / Université Paris 3 Sorbonne Nouvelle
Micaela Latini – Università degli Studi dell’Insubria
Scientific Committee
Jan Baetens - KU Leuven
Sara Bédard-Goulet - University of Tartu
Isabel Gil - Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Niccolò Scaffai - Università degli Studi di Siena
Pierre Schoentjes - UGent
Maria Stavrinaki - Université Paris 1 Sorbonne
Short bibliography
BERGÉ, A., COLLOT, M. (dir.), Paysage et modernité(s), Bruxelles, Ousia, 2007.
BIEGER, L., Ästhetik der Immersion: Wenn Räume wollen. Immersive Erleben als Raumerleben) in G. Lehnert
(hrsg.), Raum und Gefühl. Der Spatial Turn und die neue Emotionsforschung, Bielenfeld, Transcript, 2011, pp.
75-95.
COLLOT, M. (dir.), La Pensée-Paysage : philosophie, arts, littérature, Arles, Actes Sud, 2011.
GRIFFERO, T., Quasi-cose che spariscono e ritornano, senza che però si possa domandare dove siano state nel
frattempo. Appunti per un’estetica-ontologia delle atmosfere, in T. Griffero, A. Somaini (a cura di), «Rivista di
Estetica» 33 (2006), 3, pp. 45-68.
MÜHLEIS, V., Kunst und Atmosphäre, in S. Debus - R. Posner (hrsg.), Atmosphären im Alltag. Über ihre
Erzeugung und Wirkung, Bonn, Psychiatrie Verlag, 2007, pp. 124-140.
NORBERG-SCHULZ, C., Genius loci. Landschaft, Lebensraum, Stuttgart, Klett-Cotta, 1991.
OTTO, R., The idea of the holy: an inquiry into the non-rational factor in the idea of the divine and its relation to
the rational, trans. by J.W. Harvey, Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1936.
SCHOENTJES, P., Ce qui a lieu. Essai d'écopoétique, Marseille, Wildproject, 2015.
THOMAS, B., L'attrait du vent, Crisnée, Editions Yellow Now, 2016.
SCAFFAI, N., Letteratura e ecologia, Roma, Carocci, 2017.
TOLVE, A., Atmosfera. Atteggiamenti climatici nell'arte di oggi, Milano, Mimesis, 2019.
WORSTER, D., Nature’s economy: A history of ecological ideas. 2d ed. Cambridge, UK, Cambridge Univ. Press,
1994.