[Ricevo questo call for paper dai colleghi dell’Università di Cassino e volentieri giro all’attenzione dei lettori di germanistica.net.]
Artistic and social representations of poverty
Up to the eighteenth century, the theme of poverty in art and literature was dominated by the evangelical model. With the rise of ‘realistic’ art, artists gradually turned away from the allegorical dimension (see for example the scene of the poor man in Molière’s Don Juan) in favor of a denunciation of the negative consequences of industrialism on society and on the model of city. Poverty represented a scandal for reason, the de facto denial of the idea of equality. Poverty was no longer considered in itself, but in contrast with richness, the two being respectively associated with positive and negative ethical values.
In the twentieth century, the question of poverty was displaced in artistic representation by the more specific question of social conflict and class struggle. In recent decades, other types of social problems (unemployment, massive migration, war) have attracted the interest of artists and the word ‘poverty’ has often been associated with that of ‘specter’: an ever impending ethical and economical disaster. In general, however, the topic of poverty has been avoided (see, for example, the article in the on line New Yorker entitled “The “P” Word: Why Presidents Stopped Talking About Poverty”), making its occasional manifestations of particular interest (Bennet’s The Lady in the Van, certain novels by Daeninckx or Moni Ovadia’s Madre dignità).
Besides the arts and letters, the present project may include representations of ‘underprivileged social sectors’ in the press, in politics and in education. The Laboratory of Literary Studies Inter Artes of the Department of Letters and Philosophy of the University of Cassino and Southern Lazio proposes the publication of a work on the topic of the representation of poverty in art and literature, in all historical periods and geographical areas.
Working Bibliography (some suggestions)
- P. Bourdieu (coord.) La misère du monde, Paris, Seuil,1993
- Y. Lochard, Fortune du pauvre. Parcours et discours romanesques, Saint-Denis, PUV, 1998.
- Henry Mayhew, London Labour & the London Poor, Oxford-New York, OUP, 2000
- A . Sen, The idea of justice. London, Penguin, 2010
- De la pauvreté, dir. A Grunert, «CinémAction», 149, 2013.
Scientific Committee: Maddalena De Carlo, Gabriele Poole, Elisabetta Sibilio, Maria Valentini
Articles may be in Italian, French or English. Proposals, consisting of a provisional title and a 300 word abstract, should be sent to lab.interartes@gmail.com before June 30th 2015. The committee will respond by July 15th 2015. All papers submitted will be subject to double-blinded review.
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