The British, French and Irish societies for Eighteenth-Century Studies are launching a joint research programme on the cultural transfers between their three countries in the Enlightenment period. Between 2008 and 2010, three international symposia will be held in succession, in France (Paris), Great Britain, and Ireland. A selection of the contributions will subsequently be published as the conclusion of the programme.

A call for papers is therefore launched for the first symposium, to be held at the University of Paris-Diderot in September 2008. Beyond a mere comparative approach, it will aim at starting an introductory exploration of the numerous issues at stake, such as, for instance:

1) The players involved in the transfers, who could be called the ‘importers’ or ‘purveyors’ of foreign ideas and who acted as cultural intermediaries, be they politicians or diplomats or only travellers (the Grand Tour), or savants, authors, artists, etc. It will be interesting to examine the part played by institutions or more informal networks (eg. the correspondence of the Royal Society and the Académie des Sciences);

2) The transfer of cultural items – books, newspapers, works of art, objects, etc. The role of booksellers and printers, and the importance of foreign titles in the catalogues of private libraries could be investigated;

3) The transfer of literary, philosophical, political or aesthetic models in processes of cultural legitimization (eg. garden art, Richardson’s novels, the English political system, etc.). Such transfers may prove asymmetrical in terms of their intensity or their timing.

4) Transfer processes through imitation, translation or adaptation;

5) The effect of such transfers on the construction of national identities throughout the century: the invention of a past, a language, or a national history (eg. Macpherson). It could be intresting to examine transfers in relation to mutual power play, wars and imperialist ambitions (eg. Britain and Ireland / France, Britain and Ireland).

Proposals (title and abstract) should be sent by email before 30 November 2007 to

Lise Andries (Xlise.andries@wanadoo.Xfr) AND to Frédéric Ogée (Xfrederic.ogee@univ-paris-diderot.frX).
 

(before sending, please remove the X characters from the above email addresses, they have been inserted to reduce the possibility of spam)

 

Proposals for the 2009 and 2010 conferences may also be submitted.

Return to top of page