CALL FOR PAPERS

RUINS AND RECONSTRUCTIONS: POMPEII IN THE POPULAR IMAGINATION

17th-19th July 2007, Clifton Hill House, University of Bristol

In the two hundred and fifty years since excavations began, Pompeii has
became a major source of inspiration to western imaginations. The site, and
the widely accessible creations it inspired throughout the nineteenth and
twentieth centuries (novels, films, paintings, exhibitions, domestic
interiors, souvenirs and guide books) brought antiquity into the public
sphere of knowledge, to be shared between gentleman enthusiasts,
middle-class readers and music hall audiences alike. More recently, whilst
the physical state of the site itself has reached a critical state of
decay, a surge of popular interest in Pompeii, a prototype ground zero, has
seen the city, as imaginative tool, model of disaster and tourist hotspot,
reach a wider audience than ever before.

This conference, sponsored by the Bristol Institute for Research in the
Humanities and Arts, will explore the popular receptions and
representations of Pompeii. Our aim is to provide a stimulating environment
in which academics studying the city and its reception can be brought
together with practitioners who have tried to bring Pompeii to life in
media such as novels, painting, photography, documentary and journalism.
Confirmed keynote speakers include Andrew Wallace-Hadrill, Mary Beard,
Stephen Harrison, Stefano de Caro and Lindsey Davis.

The conference organisers now invite proposals for 30 minute papers on any
aspect of Pompeii's reception, or on any of the following themes:
immorality and decadence; taste and domesticity; visualising disaster;
ghosts and ruins; sex and death. Please send a 300 word abstract to Shelley
Hales (Shelley.Halesbris.ac.uk) or Joanna Paul
(Joanna.Paulliverpool.ac.uk), or to Shelley Hales, Dept of Classics &
Ancient History, University of Bristol, 11 Woodland Road, Bristol, BS8 1TB.
Abstracts must be received no later than 30 November 2006.

http://www.bris.ac.uk/arts/birtha/conferences/pompeii/index_html

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Dr Joanna Paul
Lecturer in Classical Studies
School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology
University of Liverpool
12 Abercromby Square
Liverpool
L69 7WZ

Tel. 0151 794 2469