What, when & where
International Conference
What Do Books of Lyric Poetry Talk About (and How)?
Stories and Forms of the Self from the Middle Ages to Now
University of Trento, 10-11 November 2022
Wallace Stevens, “Poetry is the supreme fiction, madame”
Starting in the early 2000s, with the publication of Lyrik und Metalyrik (2000) by Eva Müller-Zettelmann and Du Lyrisme (2000) by Jean-Michel Maulpoix, literary theory has sought to develop new interpretive models to define, circumscribe, and describe the most elusive symbolic form of literary art: lyric poetry. From ‘New Lyric Studies’ (Jackson-Prins 2014) to German narratology (Hühn 2014; Wolf 2020), from historical-philosophical models (Mazzoni 2005) to performative-deconstructionist ones (Culler 2015), from the poet’s rhetoric (Rodriguez 2003; Scaffai 2005) to the American narrative turn (McHale 2009), from French ‘néo-lyrisme’ (Collot 2005) to the theory of performative-fictional acts (Hempfer 2014), lyric poetry has been undergoing a real Renaissance that could plausibly be said to belong to the overall “narrative turn” in the humanities.
Whereas in the last part of the twentieth century studies of songbooks represented one of the most fruitful approaches to lyric poetry – cf. Marco Santagata (1979), Enrico Testa (1983), Neil Fraistat (1985, 1986), and Roland Greene (1991), later recovered by Niccolò Scaffai (2005) –, theoretical and comparative approaches to lyric poetry studies today tend to focus on the synchronic dimension of the genre, that is, the single text (cf. Morgan 2009), not the diachronic one, namely, the book-form that contains a sequence of lyrical texts organized by the poet according to certain intrinsic or extrinsic criteria (see Giunta 2006; Comboni-Zanato 2017).
“What Do Books of Lyric Poetry Talk About (and How)?” aims to make possible a diachronic critical space, the main objective of which is to place books of lyric poetry and their respective forms of authorial organization at the center of discussion. Specifically, it aims to discuss these works in a temporal frame ranging from Medieval lyric poetry to the development of electronic hypertexts, from the Middle Age to the contemporary, in order to address theoretical and comparative issues concerning the narrative structures of literary discourse. In other words, the conference seeks comparative and/or theoretical papers that address the narrative consequences of the macrotextual and formal organization of books of lyric poetry, starting from the collections themselves (rather than from individual texts), with an emphasis on the following research topics:
– lyricology vs. narrativity – the relationships between fiction, fictionality, mimesis, and factuality – the representation and function of (narrative) space – the representation and function of (narrative) time – the construction of the (narrative) identity of the lyric self – the presence and function of personae and/or characters – hybridization with other literary genres (e.g., the verse novel)Deadline & how to apply
The conference will be held in person at the Department of Humanities of the University of Trento, Italy, from 10-11 November 2022. Based on the proposals received, the two days will be divided roughly according to temporal and formal criteria, and both will open with two keynote lectures by Fabio Zinelli (École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris) and Eva Zettelmann (Universität Wien, Vienna).
alberto.comparini@unitn.it. The proposals, either in Italian or English, must have a title and an abstract (at most 3000, characters including spaces) and they must be accompanied by a biographical note about the author (at most 1000 characters including spaces). Each paper should take no longer than 25 minutes to present. Applicants will be notified of acceptance no later than May 2022. After the conference, we will seek to publish a volume containing a selection of the papers.
Those interested in participating are invited to send their proposals by April 30, 2022 to the following e-mail address Other info, Links & conditions
Scientific Committee: Serenella Baggio, Roberta Capelli, Andrea Comboni, Alberto Comparini, Luca Crescenzi, Alessandra Di Ricco, Claudio Giunta, Daniele Giglioli, Carla Gubert, Luca Morlino, Greta Perletti, Federica Pich, Massimo Rizzante, Paolo Tamassia, Pietro Taravacci
_____________
see more job opportunities.
Photo by Trust “Tru” Katsande on Unsplash