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I thought this might be of interest to REED-ers as well as strict Renaissance types...... A. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 19 Jan 1995 18:04:58 -0500 From: Germaine Warkentin <[log in to unmask]> To: Multiple recipients of list FICINO <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Call for Papers: Author as Character Cross-posted from Renais-L: > What follows is a Call for Papers. We are sending this to the Renais-L > conference because we are hoping to receive some interesting proposals on > the following Medieval and early-modern authors as characters: DANTE, > CERVANTES, CYRANO DE BERGERAC, CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE, PETRARCH, CHAUCER, > LOUISE LABE, MONTAIGNE, RABELAIS, > > Other authors whom we feel still ought to be included in the volume are: > MOLIERE, VOLTAIRE, CHATTERTON, MARY SHELLEY, P. B. SHELLEY, COLERIDGE, > DICKENS, WILDE, THOMAS MANN, THE BRONTES. Obviously, these last authors are > neither Medieval nor Renaissance. We would appreciate it, however, if you > could bring this Call for Papers to the attention of your colleagues. > > Yours faithfully, Paul Franssen and Ton Hoenselaars (Utrecht University) > > > CALL FOR PAPERS > > THE AUTHOR AS CHARACTER IN WORLD LITERATURE > > > On the crossroads between historical novel, biography, and > Kuenstlerroman, there is an international genre that has been > growing in importance over the last 100 years or so: novels, > short stories, plays, films, dialogues (of the dead), and > dramatic monologues concerned with real-life authors. An early > example is the figure of Virgil, whose ghost haunts medieval > works, providing auctoritas to the medieval poet; more recently, > Shakespeare and Goethe have been turned into fictional > protagonists by Oscar Wilde, Anthony Burgess, and Thomas Mann. > Unlike serious biographies, these works supplement or even > replace the documented facts of the earlier author's life with > fictional speculation; they differ from other historical fiction > in that the modern author is engaged in a dialogue with an > illustrious predecessor; and they are unlike the Kuenstlerroman in > that the author can only represent his/her own development and > ideas about the function of art in displaced form, by projecting > them on to the earlier author. > Due to their hybrid nature, pseudo-biographies of authors have > largely escaped critical attention as a genre so far. > Nonetheless, they confront the reader with a number of > interesting questions. First of all, to what extent can we trust > a fictionalized account of the life of a great writer as > biography (Stoppard)? Is it really a faithful portrait, which > makes plausible inferences from the known facts about an author's > life (Cyrano de Bergerac)? Are its speculations built on a > substratum of reliable documentary evidence, or on an > autobiographical reading of the author's works, and if the > latter, is that at all defensible? Is the work presented as a > kind of biography or as a mere fantasy? Does the author show a > postmodern awareness of the limitations of any attempt at > objective representation (Ackroyd)? > Alternatively, the reader may see the pseudo-biography as > pure fiction. In that case, he may wonder why the later author > took a historical figure as his/her character rather than a > purely fictional one. Is he/she in any sense attempting to > appropriate the illustrious writer from the past for his/her own > purposes, artistic, or political like Cinna the Poet in *Julius > Caesar*, or Daniel Defoe in Coetzee's novel? Can he/she even help > seeing the older author in the light of his/her own age, his/her > own personal tastes, his/her own ideas about the genesis and > function of art? Is every act of depicting a predecessor doomed > to end up as oblique self-portrayal, as a displaced > Kuenstlerroman? What role does the older author play for him/her: > a father- or mother-figure that provides legitimization for > his/her own approach to art? Or someone whose influence he/she is > anxious to exorcise, in an act of oedipal rebellion? (Harold > Bloom). > By extension, these questions are also applicable to pseudo- > biographies concerned with other kinds of creative artists. When > Browning writes a dramatic monologue for the painter Fra Lippo > Lippi, is he perhaps also thinking about his own craft, displaced > by one further dimension into a sister art? Can Burgess forget > his own musical and literary compositions when he is writing a > novel like *Mozart and the Wolfgang*? > We welcome articles about these questions for a book we are > editing, with the working title of *The Author as Character*. The > article must be written in English, and should be 4000 to 5000 > words in length. The deadline for contributions is 1 November > 1995. The subject must be the pseudo-biographical use of an > author or comparable creative artist in the works of a later > author. In view of the international readership envisaged, we > prefer articles about works in English or available in English > translation, and involving major authors. Other dimensions than > the ones mentioned above, such as those involving gender issues, > nationality, race, or creed, are also welcomed. > Should you wish to contribute an article to our volume on > *The Author as Character*, please submit your proposal of 250-300 > words by 31 March 1995. Proposals should be sent to: > > Dr. Ton Hoenselaars > Department of English > Trans 10 > 3512 JK Utrecht > The Netherlands > 030-537845 > e-mail: [log in to unmask] > > or to > > Dr. Paul J.C.M. Franssen > Department of English > Trans 10 > 3512 JK Utrecht > The Netherlands > 030-536665 > e-mail: [log in to unmask]