CALL FOR PAPERS

The Art of Sensibilité, 39th annual conference of the American
Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies, Portland, Oregon, March
27-30, 2008.

This panel seeks to explore the emergence of sensibilité as a new
visual language and mode of communication in the visual arts and art
criticism of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. We
are interested in the ways in which this new engagement with
sensibilité in art was distinct from (though often related to) both
mid-eighteenth century sentimental representations and nineteenth-
century Romanticism, as well as the Revolutionary classicism
associated with the Davidian school. Papers considering the growing
centrality of sensibilité as a visual and rhetorical mode of address
are particularly encouraged, as are proposals focusing on a range of
national traditions. Possible themes could include: sensibilité as a
mode of sociability and communication; gender and sensibilité;
sensibilité and the growing importance of amatory themes in art;
familial and emotive portraiture; pathos and representation; religion
and sensibilité; critical responses to art; the influence of
philosophy and literature on visual representation; sensibilité as a
response to historical transformations - especially the French
Revolution and its aftermath; and sensibilité as a means of
articulating national values and identity.

Chairs: Heather Belnap Jensen, Dept. of Visual Arts, E-509 HFAC,
Brigham Young U., Provo, UT 84602; Tel: (801) 422-8242; E-mail:
heather_jensenbyu.edu AND Rachel Lindheim, Dept. of Liberal Studies,
Humanities 214, California State U., Fullerton, Fullerton CA 92831;
Tel: (714) 278-3805; E-mail: rlindheimfullerton.edu

Proposals for papers should be sent to both seminar chairs no later
than 25 September 2007. Please include your telephone and fax numbers
and e-mail address.