Travelling with Symbolism (Workshop)

Academia Belgica, Rome, 8 June 2023

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 clichéd 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 Clément 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 Université /Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin), ‘The Train Journey: A Symbolist Poetics. Remy de Gourmont and Ardengo Soffici’

• Amândio 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 (Università 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 Père Lachaise (1915)’

• Viola Parente-Čapková (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 Régent (Université Paris-Sorbonne), ‘Rodenbach reads Loti: Symbolism and Exoticism’

• James Dowthwaite (University of Jena), ‘“Unmeaning 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 Clément Dessy, Stefano Evangelista and Patrick McGuinness.