Call for Papers

The Forgotten Voices of the Avant-Garde

University of Leeds
20th-21st January 2011

A postgraduate conference co-organised and supported by the University
of Leeds (School of Modern Languages and Cultures), the University of
Aberdeen (School of Language and Literature), and Queen’s University
Belfast (Spanish and Portuguese Studies).

Part of the Arts and Humanities Research Council’s Beyond Text
Initiative, with funding from the Society for French Studies.

Keynote speakers:
- Dr. Ruth Hemus, School of Modern Languages, Literatures, and
Cultures, Royal Holloway, University of London.
- Dr. John McCulloch, School of Modern Languages and Cultures,
Hispanic Studies, University of Glasgow.

Despite repeated challenges to the notion of art as an institution,
prompting questions about the criteria and norms that establish the
legitimacy of a work of art, the artistic production of the avant-garde
has, with the passing of time, been mediated and transmitted by means of
the very structures it sought to deconstruct. Bound up with cultural,
social, economic and political issues, these structures specifically
concern:

o the application of restrictive binary divisions (text/image,
script/performance) in the categorisation of artworks;
o the means and forms by and in which artistic production is
(re)distributed;
o the primacy of the written word, and consequent
misrepresentation and devaluation of the non-textual (visual, oral,
aural, performative) artwork.

Within the context of the avant-garde, this inter-disciplinary
conference considers the work of artists and writers whose work has been
forgotten, ignored, or undervalued. In so doing, it also invites a
critical rethinking of the means by which we preserve, communicate, and
transmit cultural production across time and space. Ultimately what we
seek to determine, is how these structures of preservation,
communication, and transmission have shaped and defined the avant-garde
itself.

Contributions from both postgraduate students working (for example) in
the fields of literature, theatre, film and visual culture, art history,
text/image, music, and performance studies, and from those working as
curators in museums or art galleries, are welcomed and encouraged.

Speakers may wish to consider – but are not limited to – the following
topics:

o women writers, artists and the avant-garde;
o non-normative sexualities;
o the hierarchy of avant-garde groups: the supremacy of
avant-garde groups’ leaders;
o marginalised artists and avant-garde groups;
o museum strategy and the avant-garde, in particular the
preservation and dissemination of artworks encompassing text, image,
sound, object;
o visual and artistic techniques of the avant-garde;
o interplay between visual (including performance and oral
communication) and textual communication, and its potential for
transmission;
o avant-garde and cultural institutions.

We invite proposals for twenty-minute papers from postgraduate students.
Papers should be in English. Abstracts (maximum 300 words), together
with a short biography indicating your academic background and research
interests, should be submitted via e-mail (to
voicesoftheavantgardegmail.com<mailto:voicesoftheavantgardegmail.com>)
by 1st October 2010. Please include your name, academic affiliation,
and contact details. A limited number of travel bursaries will be
available; please indicate if you are interested.

For further information, please consult our blog:
http://www.voicesoftheavantgarde.com<http://www.voicesoftheavantgarde.com/>

Organizers:

Rebecca Ferreboeuf (Department of French, University of Leeds)
Fiona Noble (Department of Hispanic Studies, University of Aberdeen)
Tara Plunkett (Department of Spanish and Portuguese Studies, Queen’s
University, Belfast)

The University of Aberdeen is a charity registered in Scotland, No SC013683.