CALL FOR PAPERS


THE CIRCULATION OF SHAKESPEARE’S PLAYS IN EUROPE’S BORDERLAND


University of Bucharest, Romania
November 8th-9th, 2018


KEYNOTE SPEAKERS:
Prof. RUI CARVALHO HOMEM, University of Porto
Prof. ALEXANDER SHURBAOV, University of Sofia

“The Circulation of Shakespeare’s Plays in Europe’s Borderland” International Conference invites scholars to engage in re-thinking and re-defining the idea of Europe’s borderlands (the Western and the Eastern ones) and of Shakespeare's travel to these two cultural spaces in three different periods:
a) the early circulation (the 18th and 19th century) of already mediated texts that had a history of translation or re-writing in major European cultural spaces;
b) the circulation of Shakespeare texts (translations, adaptations and critical texts) and/or performances during the Cold War, across or behind the infamous Iron Curtain;
c) the 21st century negotiations of a globally “reformatted” Shakespeare and the re-localization of his texts in new projects of re-writing his plays.

We believe that exploring the role of Shakespeare re-writings as a catalyst of exchanges as well as of transformations in these two borderland regions of Europe can lead to exciting discussions on possible similarities and differences in the reception and re-writing of Shakespeare as well as on the re-thinking of the very term “borderland”.

We invite contributions focusing on, yet not limited to, the following aspects:

- What cultural transfers were promoted by the circulation of indirect translations (from French or German) of Shakespeare in the 18th-19th centuries?
- What negotiations were possible in the socialist period when Moscow set itself up as the political and cultural center, while translators and critics/teachers still looked at Paris or London for models?
- What cultural exchanges does the ongoing re-translation of Shakespeare’s plays perform in the context of the global-local articulation?
- How does the content of Shakespeare's works change when travelling across media, do they contest or re-enforce the canonical status of the bard and what are the political implications of these adaptations and repurposings for the two borderlands?
- What are the continuities in the approaches towards Shakespeare in education and what discontinuities have the new digital age and the penetration of the logic of the marketplace in school introduced in Romania and the “borderland region”?
- What critical/ideological framework has the teaching of Shakespeare been designed to promote?
- How can the global-local negotiation in the teaching of Shakespeare adaptations promote students’ critical thinking rather than passive consumerism?

Submission guidelines:


250-300 word abstracts for papers to be presented at the conference should be sent by 15 June 2018. Together with the abstract and the title of the paper, prospective participants are invited to send a brief (100-word) bio stating their name, institutional affiliation, research interests, e-mail, telephone number and relevant academic output.
- Conference presentations should be in English and will be allocated 20 minutes each, plus 10 minutes for discussion.
- Both abstracts and bios should be sent to the following e-mail address:
shakespeare.borderland.conference@gmail.com

Conference organizers:
Prof. Mădălina Nicolaescu (University of Bucharest),
Dr. Oana-Alis Zaharia (University of Bucharest)
Dr. Andrei Nae (University of Bucharest)
PhD. student Irina Spătaru (University of Bucharest)
This conference is organized as part of the UEFISCDI-funded research project, The Circulation of Shakespeare's Texts in the South-Eastern Border, no. 1/2017, PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2016