CALL FOR PAPERS

ARCHITEXTURE:
Textual and Architectural Spaces
15-17th April 2008, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK

The first collaboration between the Departments of Architecture and English
Studies

This interdisciplinary conference investigates the relationships between
architectural and literary constructions of space. It will explore the
influence of spatial theories within literary texts; consider how writers
evoke and represent a sense of place; and invite new perspectives on the
aesthetic, physical, and social functions of texts in the design, production
and consumption of the built environment. The conference also aims to discuss
these insights within the context of Glasgow. The social and performance
events - to include a champagne reception at the City Chambers, a walking
tour of the Necropolis, a trip down the Clyde, and visits to the old
industrial and residential areas of the city - will encourage participants
to reflect on the connections between their 'academic' and other uses of text
and space.

We welcome a wide range of disciplinary theorisations of the concepts of text
and space, literature and architecture. This international event aims to
bring together scholars, artists, architects, writers, urban planners and
filmmakers and many other interested individuals and organisations. We are
happy to accept contributions in any media but proposals for 20-minute
presentations and 10-minute A2 poster sessions, focused around the following
Architextural themes are invited (the accompanying questions are merely
suggestive of some of the themes that could be addressed):

Different Genres
What are the differences in the way in which novelists, poets, journalists,
and travel writers treat the subject of space in their work? How do the
attempts of architects and planners to construct a narrative of space differ
between urban, suburban and rural contexts? What if any are the
methodological similarities between the ways an architect or writer works
when constructing a spatial narrative?

Historical Movements
Movements like classicism, modernism, romanticism, and post-colonialism are
categories that are common to both architectural and literary history. How do
they relate to each other and how are notions of space dealt with within each
movement? What for instance are the connections between modernism in
literature and in architecture? How does nineteenth century romanticism
relate to eclecticism in architecture?

Public and Private Lives
The distinctions between what we understand by private and public space are
often confusing. How do architects, planners and writers tackle issues like
domesticity and the creation of private worlds? How do they tackle the
development of narrative forms in the public realm in places devoted to
retail or tourism? How have designers and writers addressed issues of memory
and identity?

Notational Systems
How have the development of new technology and communication systems blurred
the boundaries between different creative disciplines? How are texts and
narratives transcribed from one discipline into another? Are there parallels
between the ways in which writers and architects experiment with form and
meaning?

Abstracts of Papers (300 words max.) should be submitted by 30th January
2008, by email to architexturestrath.ac.uk. Final draft of papers submitted
for publication by Monday 13th August 2008.

Craig McLean, doctoral student, Department of English Studies
Dr Sarah Edwards, Lecturer, Department of English Studies
Dr Jonathan Charley, Senior Lecturer, Department of Architecture