Latest posts…

  • Worlding Symbolism/Les Mondes du symbolisme

    TEXTeS, IMAGES, OBJEcTS

    Mise Ă  jour le 16 mai 2024 :en raison d’une manifestation Ă©tudiante, les 17 et 18 mai, le colloque aura lieu au local UD6.215 (bĂątiment U, entrĂ©e D, Ă©tage 6). Il continue d’avoir lieu au NB2.VIS (BibliothĂšque des sciences humaines) le 16 mai.

    Updated on 16 May 2024: due to a student demonstration, the conference will take place in the lecture room UD6.215 (building U, gate D, floor 6) on 17 and 18 May. It remains organised at NB2.VIS (bibliothĂšque des sciences humaines) on 16 May.

    PROGRAMME

    Clément Dessy, Stefano Evangelista & Patrick McGuinness, org.

    Université libre de Bruxelles

    16-18.05.2024

    Campus du Solbosch

    Jeudi 16 mai-Thursday 16 May

    Local : NB2.VIS (BibliothĂšque des Sciences humaines Simone Veil)

    10:00-10:30Introduction
    10:30-12:00Session 1: Networks of mediation / Réseaux de médiation
    Jon Stone (Franklin & Marshall College)Russian Symbolists and the Imitative Imperative of Modernism
    Helena Cox (University of York)Bohemian Symbolism
    Alexia Kalantzis (Université Paris Cité)Plurilinguisme et cosmopolitisme : le périodique comme espace stratégique de circulation
    12:00-13:30Lunch
    13:30-15:00Session 2: Matérialités signifiantes / Meaningful Materialities
    Lene Østermark-Johansen (University of Copenhagen)East meets West: Antoine Bourdelle’s La Danse (1912)
    Guy Conde-Reis (ULB) & Bruno Montamat (MinistĂšre de l’Éducation nationale, France)L’hĂŽtel Van Eetvelde de Victor Horta : le Congo belge incarnĂ©
    Angie Dunstan (Queen Mary University of London)Her Double Life: Sarah Bernhardt and the Global Circulation of Symbolist Sculptural Aesthetics
    15:00-15:30Break/Pause
    15:30-17:00Session 3: East/West Encounters / Rencontres Est-Ouest
    MaĂŻa Varsimashvili-RaphaĂ«lL’aspiration europĂ©enne du symbolisme gĂ©orgien
    Teona Farmatu (UniversitĂ© Babeș-Bolyai de Cluj-Napoca)Le symbolisme dans l’espace du sud-est europĂ©en : le cas de Roumanie. L’influence française et la double orientalisation du symbolisme
    Adriana Sotropa (Université Bordeaux Montaigne)Le symbolisme roumain : stratégies nationales pour un affichage international
    19 :00DĂźner/Dinner

    Friday 17 May-Vendredi 17 mai

    Local : UD6.215

    10 :00-11 :00Session 4: Intermédialité par-delà les frontiÚres / Intermediality across Borders
    Cyril BardeLe verre symboliste : un prisme intermĂ©dial et international
    ÉvanghĂ©lia Stead (UVSQ Paris-Saclay)Aubrey Beardsley takes Europe by Storm and Provokes Art to Intermediality
    11:00-11:30Pause/Break
    11:30-13:00Session 5: Intersecting Influences / Influences croisées
    Laure Kazmierczak (Université de Mons)Les (re)traductions en russe et en allemand de La Princesse Maleine, premier drame symboliste de Maurice Maeterlinck
    Emmanuel Boldrini (UniversitĂ© Paris Est CrĂ©teil)Redon, Klinger, Laforgue : itinĂ©raires d’influences mutuelles et rĂ©ciproques, entre textes et images, entre France et Allemagne
    Ana Parejo Vadillo (Birkbeck, University of London)The Author as a Symbol: Michael Field’s Dialoguic Imagination
    13:00-14:00Lunch
    14:00-15:30Session 6: Identités poétiques : cosmopolitisme et nationalisme / Poetic Identities: Cosmopolitanism and Nationalism
    Inna Volkovynska et Oleksandr Volkovynskyi (Université Grenoble Alpes)Réinterprétations du jardin dans la poésie symboliste ukrainienne
    Matthew Potolsky (University of Utah)Sarojini Naidu: Symbolism and Nationalism
    Dimitris Papanikolaou (St. Cross College, Oxford)Worlding C.P.Cavafy’s symbolism
    15:30-18:00Cultural visit/visite Culturelle – BibliothĂšque-MusĂ©e Wittockiana (for speakers only)
    19:00Cocktail at Maison Hannon (for speakers only)


    Samedi 18 mai-Saturday 18 May

    Local : UD6.215

    9 :00-10 :30Session 7: Translating the Visual / Traduire le visuel
    Charlotte Ashby (Birkbeck, University of London)Entangled Histories: Imagining India in Britain 1890-1920
    Elodie Le Beller (UniversitĂ© Rennes 2)La rĂ©novation de la tempera : un caractĂšre technique transnational du symbolisme pictural
    Eduardo De Maio (University of York)The magazine La Triennale : International symbolism and the debate on the social value of beauty in Italy
    10:30-11:00Break/Pause
    11:00-12:30Session 8: Écrire les mobilitĂ©s / Writing Mobilities
    Matthew Creasy (University of Glasgow)Postal Routes: Mallarmé’s Occasional Poetry and the Dissemination of Symbolism
    Alex Murray (Queen’s University Belfast)‘The wanderer of the ways of all the worlds’: Christopher Brennan and the Quest for Australian Symbolism
    Adeline Heck (UniversitĂ© libre de Bruxelles)A Cosmopolitan Novel? Unpicking the Many Contradictions of Teodor de Wyzewa’s Valbert (1893)
    12:30-14:00Conclusions & lunch
    14:00-17:00Cultural visit/AprĂšs-midi : visite culturelle (for speakers only)

    Avec le généreux soutien de la Fondation Wiener-Anspach.

    2024-le-symbolismeTélécharger
    programme-brussels-2024-1Télécharger

  • Les Mondes du Symbolisme : Textes, Images, Objets (AÀC)

    Université libre de Bruxelles, 16-17 mai 2024

    [The English version of the call is available here.]

    L’essor du symbolisme Ă  la fin du XIXe siĂšcle a coĂŻncidĂ© avec le dĂ©veloppement technologique fulgurant des moyens de communication et de transport qui ont facilitĂ© la circulation transnationale des personnes, des textes, des images et des objets d’art. Les Ă©crivains et les artistes affiliĂ©s au symbolisme ont donc pu bĂ©nĂ©ficier d’une plus grande mobilitĂ© Ă  travers le monde : ils ont intĂ©grĂ© des formes et des idĂ©es d’autres cultures afin de donner naissance Ă  de nouvelles pratiques et thĂ©ories artistiques ; ils ont cherchĂ© Ă  remodeler les normes esthĂ©tique en promouvant des perspectives transnationales et cosmopolites ; ils ont refaçonnĂ© leurs propres identitĂ©s artistiques et sociales. Cet Ă©largissement de vision a menĂ© Ă  un bouleversement des hiĂ©rarchies et des systĂšmes de valeurs Ă©tablis. Dans le mĂȘme temps, ce processus a aussi Ă©tĂ© liĂ© Ă  la mise en place de nouvelles formes de concurrence et d’inĂ©galitĂ©, en particulier en ce qui concerne l’évolution des relations entre les cultures europĂ©ennes, africaines et asiatiques.

    Le prĂ©sent colloque entend apporter un nouvel Ă©clairage sur les processus dynamiques de mondialisation du symbolisme, en prenant en compte tant les cultures littĂ©raires, matĂ©rielles que visuelles. Il interrogera, par exemple, la façon dont les Ă©crits et les thĂ©ories esthĂ©tiques du symbolisme ont interagi avec le mouvement d’Ɠuvres reprĂ©sentatives Ă  travers le monde, en incluant tant les beaux-arts que les objets dĂ©coratifs conçus pour l’usage quotidien. Comment les expositions artistiques et industrielles, qui se sont multipliĂ©es Ă  cette Ă©poque, ont-elles affectĂ© la circulation littĂ©raire ? Comment la forme matĂ©rielle des livres et des pĂ©riodiques a-t-elle contribuĂ© Ă  la diffusion du symbolisme au-delĂ  de multiples frontiĂšres ? Et, inversement, quel a Ă©tĂ© l’impact de la circulation transnationale des textes et des thĂ©ories symbolistes, par exemple, par le biais de la traduction, sur les pratiques artistiques ?

    Alors que la critique a longtemps cherchĂ© Ă  dĂ©terminer les limites du symbolisme, en rĂ©flĂ©chissant par exemple Ă  sa relation complexe et insaisissable avec le mouvement dĂ©cadent, ce colloque s’attache Ă  Ă©tudier la dynamique de mondialisation, qui a vu la littĂ©rature dialoguer avec une variĂ©tĂ© d’autres mĂ©dias visuels, de la publicitĂ© aux arts de la scĂšne et de l’illustration au cinĂ©ma. En se concentrant sur la maniĂšre dont le symbolisme a Ă©voluĂ© et s’est dĂ©veloppĂ© dans diffĂ©rents pays et zones linguistiques, il vise Ă©galement Ă  remettre en question la chronologie du mouvement et son chevauchement avec d’autres mouvements (dĂ©cadence, expressionnisme, modernisme, etc.). De mĂȘme, puisque l’étiquette symboliste semble appliquĂ©e de maniĂšre moins restrictive dans les arts visuels qu’en matiĂšre de littĂ©rature, le colloque encourage Ă©galement le croisement des approches intermĂ©diale et transnationale afin de pouvoir mieux cerner la circulation du mouvement Ă  travers les arts et les langues.

    Les propositions de communication attendues concernent toutes les zones gĂ©ographiques et linguistiques, et s’inscrivent dans une dĂ©finition Ă©tendue du symbolisme, depuis ses premiĂšres origines au milieu du XIXe siĂšcle jusqu’à ses retombĂ©es dans l’entre-deux-guerres. Les propositions pourront aborder la mondialisation du symbolisme sous un ou plusieurs des angles suivants :

    • La circulation mondiale des objets et des thĂ©ories artistiques
    • La traduction et le visuel
    • L’illustration et la typographie
    • La matĂ©rialitĂ© textuelle (papiers, reliures, formats)
    • Les artistes et Ă©crivain·es pluridisciplinaires
    • La culture des pĂ©riodiques et des revues internationales
    • Les technologies (tĂ©lĂ©graphe, Ă©lectricitĂ©, courrier, dactylographie, transport)
    • Le façonnage des identitĂ©s nationales/locales/mondiales
    • Le colonialisme/dĂ©colonialisme
    • L’esthĂ©tique et l’éthique de l’appropriation culturelle
    • Les archives et bibliothĂšques symbolistes
    • Les rĂ©seaux publics et privĂ©s
    • Les expositions et les cafĂ©s littĂ©raires

    Les propositions de communication en anglais ou en français sont les bienvenues. L’organisation veillera Ă  permettre aux participant·es d’échanger dans les deux langues en mettant en place un soutien d’interprĂ©tation.

    Les propositions comporteront des rĂ©sumĂ©s de maximum 300 mots accompagnĂ©s d’une notice biographique de maximum 150 mots et devront nous parvenir avant le 19 janvier 2024 par le biais du formulaire suivant : https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdBAf_0z8oMTeZAumx_ed6r6n2Vf7gV9_d7Ti9pA5SlU1eBHA/viewform.

    Cet Ă©vĂ©nement s’inscrit Ă  la suite de deux journĂ©es d’étude prĂ©cĂ©dentes qui ont explorĂ© le rĂŽle de la gĂ©ographie et du voyage dans la littĂ©rature symboliste. Le projet « Symbolism and Decadence as World Literature Â» est une collaboration entre les universitĂ©s de Bruxelles et d’Oxford financĂ©e par la Fondation Wiener-Anspach. Pour plus d’informations, veuillez consulter : https://symbolistworlds.com.

    Les organisateurs de la confĂ©rence, ClĂ©ment Dessy, Stefano Evangelista et Patrick McGuinness, peuvent ĂȘtre contactĂ©s Ă  l’adresse suivante : symbolistworlds@proton.me.

  • Worlding Symbolism: Texts, Images, Objects (CFP)

    Université libre de Bruxelles, 16-17 May 2024

    [La version française de l’appel est disponible ici]

    The rise of Symbolism at the end of the nineteenth century coincided with rapid developments in communication and transport technologies that facilitated the transnational movement of people, texts, images and art objects. Writers and artists linked to Symbolism were therefore able to profit from an increased global mobility: they incorporated forms and ideas from other cultures that gave rise to new artistic practices and aesthetic theories; they questioned local standards of taste, promoting transnational and cosmopolitan outlooks; they revised their own artistic identities and social affiliations. This engagement with an enlarged, world perspective caused the breakdown of traditional hierarchies and systems of values. However, it simultaneously also triggered new forms of competition and inequality, especially in the evolving relationship between European, African and Asian cultures.

    This conference aims to shed light on the worlding of symbolism as a dynamic process that brought together literary, material and visual cultures. We will ask, for instance, how Symbolist writings and aesthetic theories intersected with the global movement of embodied objects ranging from the fine arts to decorative objects designed for daily use. How did the artistic and industrial exhibitions that proliferated in this period affect literary traffic? How did the material form of books and periodicals contribute to disseminating Symbolism across borders? And, conversely, what was the impact of the transnational circulation of Symbolist literature, for instance through translation, on artistic practices?

    While many critics have attempted to set the boundaries of Symbolism, for instance by seeking to define its notoriously elusive relationship with Decadence, our emphasis is rather on investigating the dynamics of worlding that brought literature into dialogue with a variety of visual media ranging from advertisement to the performing arts, from book illustration to cinema. By focusing on how Symbolism evolved and expanded in different countries and language areas, we also aim to question its chronology and overlap with other literary and artistic movements (Decadence, Expressionism, Modernism, etc.).

    We welcome proposals for papers on all geographical and language areas covering a broad definition of Symbolism from its first origins in the mid-nineteenth century to its aftermath in the interwar period. Proposals might address the worlding of Symbolism from one or more of the following angles:

    • Global circulation of objects, images and art theories
    • Translation and the visual
    • Illustrations and typography
    • Textual materiality (paper, bindings, formats)
    • Multi-disciplinarity
    • Periodical culture and international magazines
    • Technologies (telegraph, electricity, mail, typewriting)
    • Fashioning national/local/global identities
    • Colonialism/Decolonialism
    • The aesthetics and ethics of cultural appropriation
    • Symbolist archives and libraries
    • Public and private networks
    • Exhibitions/cafĂ©s/salons

    Please upload 300 word abstracts together with a 150 word biographical blurb by 19 January 2024 using the following link: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSdBAf_0z8oMTeZAumx_ed6r6n2Vf7gV9_d7Ti9pA5SlU1eBHA/viewform

    We welcome proposals for papers in English or French. The conference will be bilingual and language support will be available.

    This event builds on two previous workshops that explored the role of Geography and Travel in Symbolist literature. The project ‘Symbolism and Decadence as World Literature’ is a collaboration between the Universities of Brussels and Oxford funded by the Wiener-Anspach Foundation. For details, please visit: https://symbolistworlds.com.

    Please direct enquires to the conference organisers, Clément Dessy, Stefano Evangelista and Patrick McGuinness, at the following address: symbolistworlds@proton.me.

  • Travelling with Symbolism (Workshop)

    Academia Belgica, Rome, 8 June 2023

    Maurice Denis, Ils virent des fées débarquer sur les plages, ca. 1893

    Because of their widespread association with interior states of consciousness and the rejection of daily reality, Symbolism and Decadence often conjure ideas of failed journeys and the retreat from the world. J.-K. Huysmans’s À Rebours offers an emblematic instance of such practices, when Des Esseintes embarks on a journey to England only to end up in a Parisian English pub in order to preserve himself from a potentially disappointing encounter with reality. In a similar vein, Oscar Wilde wrily warned Japanophiles off the tourist trap of travelling to the Far East : ‘stroll down Piccadilly, and if you cannot see an absolutely Japanese effect there, you will not see it anywhere.’

    However, the biographies of artists and writers contradict such clichĂ©d representations of individuals stuck in their ivory towers. In the heyday of Symbolism and Decadence, modern and faster means of transport made journeys easier, across Europe and beyond. Artists, writers and performers linked to these movements travelled extensively in the course of their careers in order to give talks, build networks, visit international exhibitions and artistic events (such as the music festival in Bayreuth), or simply for leisure or to find new sources of inspiration in foreign places. Some turned their journeys into travel narratives or media events, as Oscar Wilde did with his tour of North America. Hotels, spas, seaside resorts, galleries, world fairs, artists’ colonies and colonial settings are among the many places that fed the spatial imagination of writers and artists.

    This workshop will examine how travel and travel writing shaped the social identities and cultural practices of the Symbolist and Decadent movements, contributing at the same time to disseminate art works and literature across the globe. The aim is to facilitate an open discussion of work in progress, current scholarly trends and possible new research directions in relation to the global circulation of people, texts and art works around 1900. The event will comprise short presentations by invited participants, roundtable discussions of recent publications and a guided visit to the collections of Galleria Nazionale d’Arte Moderna e Contemporanea.

    ‘Travelling with Symbolism’ will be held at the Academia Belgica in Rome on 8-9 June 2023. It is the second event of the research network ‘Symbolism and Decadence as World Literature’ supported by the Wiener-Anspach Foundation and led by ClĂ©ment Dessy, Stefano Evangelista and Patrick McGuinness.

    Programme

    Thursday 8 June

    9.15                 opening

    9:30                 introduction

    10:00- 11:00    Writing Journeys (session)

    • Alexia Kalantzis (Paris Cergy UniversitĂ© /UniversitĂ© de Versailles Saint-Quentin), ‘The Train Journey: A Symbolist Poetics. Remy de Gourmont and Ardengo Soffici’
    • AmĂąndio Reis (University of Lisbon), ‘News from Japan and Beyond: Travel and Death in Wenceslau de Moraes’

    11:00-11:30    coffee break

    11:30-12:30    Italian Travellers (session)

    • Anna Mazzanti (Politecnico Milano), ‘Travel and Place in Italian Symbolism’
    • Davide Lacagnina (UniversitĂ  degli Studi di Siena), ‘The Art Critic as a Globe Trotter: Vittorio Pica and his international Symbolist Network’

    12:30-14:00    lunch (Academia Belgica)

    14:00-15:00    Dialogues and Correspondences (session)

    • Lene Østermark-Johansen (University of Copenhagen), ‘Travelling between East and West, between the Living and the Dead: Anna Strunsky Walling’s Violette of PĂšre Lachaise (1915)’
    • Viola Parente-ČapkovĂĄ (University of Turku), ‘Belated Paris Letters from the Beginning of November: L. Onerva’s Journeys’

    15:00-15:30    coffee break

    15:30-16:30    Exoticism and Otherness (session)

    • Mathilde RĂ©gent (UniversitĂ© Paris-Sorbonne), ‘Rodenbach reads Loti: Symbolism and Exoticism’
    • James Dowthwaite (University of Jena), â€˜â€œUnmeaning Profundity”: The Aesthetics of Race in Arthur Symons’s Travel Writing’

    16:30-18:00    closing discussion

    Venue: Academia Belgica, Via Omero 8, I-00197 Roma (www.academiabelgica.it)

    With the generous support of the Academia Belgica and the Wiener-Anspach Foundation in the framework of the projet ‘Symbolism and Decadence as World Literature’ directed by ClĂ©ment Dessy, Stefano Evangelista and Patrick McGuinness.

    programme-ab-rome-final-Télécharger

  • Geographies of Symbolism/Symbolist Geographies (Workshop)

    21-22 October, St Anne’s College, Oxford

    Fernand Khnopff, Ex-Libris for Edmond Deman’s Publishing House, 1887.

    This two-day workshop is the inaugural event of the international research project ‘Symbolism and Decadence as World Literature’ funded by the Wiener-Anspach Foundation and led by ClĂ©ment Dessy, Stefano Evangelista and Patrick McGuinness.

    The first readers of the ‘Manifesto of Symbolism’ (1886) by an obscure French poet called Jean MorĂ©as could hardly have imagined that the term symbolism would soon become internationally known as a literary and artistic label. Occurring on the heels of the industrial revolution and at the peak of European colonialism, the symbolist movement was deeply informed by issues of global mobility. New ways of communicating and travelling across borders contributed to redefining the dissemination of artistic movements. Symbolism can be understood as a network that connected the rapidly growing imperial capitals of Europe (Paris, London, Brussels, Berlin, Vienna
) to each other and to cultures and places beyond the European continent, creating the conditions for the global circulation of ideas and artistic forms. This process involved a double movement towards cosmopolitanism and cultural competition: the international dissemination of symbolist literature and art strongly relied on acts of cross-border collaboration but it also forged or reinforced cultural hierarchies between different countries, cities and geographical spaces.

    Symbolist works reflect this deep engagement with space. They are rooted in specific places when it comes to production and circulation, but their contents often gesture towards a world consciousness and towards reimaging existing spatial taxonomies (national borders; North-South, East-West binaries; metropolitan vs. colonial; urban vs. rural, etc.).

    The project ‘Symbolism and Decadence as World Literature’ (a partnership between Oxford University and the UniversitĂ© Libre de Bruxelles) will start with a workshop that explores the international network of Symbolism through the angle of geography, broadly conceived. We want to discuss how geography affects symbolism and how Symbolism reconfigures geography. The aim is to facilitate an open discussion about work in progress, current research trends and possible future directions in relation to symbolist geographies. The event will comprise short informal papers (10 minutes), a roundtable discussion of recent publications and the state of the field and a guided visit to the symbolist collections of the Ashmolean Museum.

    Programme

    21 October, St Anne’s College (seminar room 8)

    09:30-10:00: Welcome and Introduction of ‘Symbolism and Decadence as World Literature’

    10:00-11:00: Session 1: Connecting Spaces

    • Jennifer Yee (Christ Church, Oxford): Presentation of French Decadence in a Global Context (UP Liverpool, 2022)
    • Elisa Segnini (University of Glasgow): ‘Symbolism and Multilingualism?’
    • Alex Murray (Queen’s University Belfast): ‘Rendering Symbolism: Around Launcelot Cranmer-Byng’

    11:00-11:30: Coffee break

    11:30-12:30: Session 2: Imagined Places

    • Matthew Creasy (University of Glasgow): ‘Translating Les Flaireurs – Scottish Cosmopolitanism and Belgian Symbolism at the Fin de SiĂšcle’
    • Edward Lee-Six (Free University of Brussels, ULB): ‘“Thekla” by Jane Wilde and the Symbolist North’
    • Richard Hibbitt (University of Leeds): ‘The Symbolist Novel as Transnational Capital’

    13:00-14:00: Lunch

    14:30-16:00: Session 3: Displacing Objects

    • Julien Schuh (University Paris Ouest Nanterre): ‘Symbolism, Epiphenomenon of Colonialism? (Indochina, Oceania, Indonesia)’
    • Matthew Winterbottom (Ashmolean Museum, Oxford): ‘Symbolist Object in Focus: ClĂ©ment Massier’
    • Kirsten Shepherd-Barr (St Catherine’s College, Oxford): ‘Displacing the Human:  Rethinking Symbolist Theatre in the 21st-Century’
    • MarĂ­a del Pilar Blanco (Trinity College, Oxford): ‘Experiments in Incommensurability: Latin America and Symbolism’

    16:00-16:30: Coffee break

    16:30-18:00: Session 4: The Future of Symbolist Studies

    19:00-19:30: Drink reception

    19:30: Dinner

    22 October, Ashmolean Museum

    10:00-12:00: [reserved for workshop speakers only] Symbolist tour in the collections of the Ashmolean Museum (org. An Van Camp and Matthew Winterbottom)

    Download the programme in PDF format

    programme-workshop-geographies-of-symbolism-generalTélécharger