CFP: WHY CRIME FICTION MATTERS: THE ITALIAN CASE

WHY CRIME FICTION MATTERS: THE ITALIAN CASE

Study Day/Workshop

Friday 21 November 2014,  9am–5pm

La Trobe University City Campus  (215 Franklin St, Melbourne CBD, Australia)

Opening address:  Prof. Stephen Knight (University of Melbourne)

Deadline:  15 July, 2014

In recent decades crime fiction has enjoyed a creative boom and has become a vehicle for representing a changing Italian society, investigating history, politics and society, and promoting cultural exchange in the broadest sense. While the literary and social impact of crime fiction has been powerfully underscored by writers and theorists of the genre, courses on the giallo seldom appear in Australasian universities. As part of a three year-project entitled “Why Crime Fiction Matters”, sponsored by the Australasian Centre for Italian Studies (ACIS), this one-day free workshop will consider the way crime fiction and films deal with important issues in Italian society, as well as the fascination they exert on readers. The event will bring together a number of disciplines to investigate key themes and provide a platform for discussion for all those interested in researching and teaching Italian crime fiction. We welcome papers from a variety of disciplinary and comparative perspectives.

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

• Crime fiction as a vehicle of historical, political and social criticism

• Dialects of detection: national versus regional identities

• Detectives in dresses: gender identities

• Crime in rhyme: poetry and linguistic experimentalism

• Crime in multicultural contexts

• The Look of Others: American/British crime fiction set in Italy

• Crimine, calcio, ciclismo: il poliziotto sportivo

• Representations in plays, films and TV series

• Translating the giallo

 

Please send abstracts (max. 200 words) for proposed papers of c. 20 minutes by email to B.Maher@latrobe.edu.au and barbara_pezzotti@yahoo.it by July 15, 2014. The abstract should include the title, name and affiliation of the speaker, contact email address, short biographical note and any AV requests. Feel free to submit abstracts presenting work in progress as well as completed projects. Postgraduates are especially welcome. A contribution towards travel/accommodation costs will be available to students whose papers are accepted. Please contact Barbara Pezzotti for further details.

We would like to place on the ACIS website drafts of the papers to be presented so that participants can download and read them in advance and thus benefit from more in-depth discussion at the event. Only registered workshop participants will be able to access the drafts which will be placed on a password-protected page. Please indicate in your proposal if you would be willing to take advantage of this option, in which case you should provide us with the text by October 15, 2014.

Participation in the workshop is free. Lunch and tea/coffee will also be provided free of charge.

Updated information will be placed on the workshop page under Conferences on the main menu of the ACIS website.

Conference Organizers: Barbara Pezzotti (ACIS) and Brigid Maher (La Trobe University).

Contact for general enquiries: barbara_pezzotti@yahoo.it

Conference Sponsors: The Australasian Centre for Italian Studies (ACIS) and La Trobe University