CFP: Canadian Association for Italian Studies Conference, Orvieto, June 13-16, ‘New Realities and the Avant-Garde’

Canadian Association for Italian Studies Conference, Orvieto, June 13-16

‘New Realities and the Avant-Garde’, organised by Prof Paola Sica

This panel intends to continue a debate carried out by various scholars interested in the Avant-Garde. In 2018, for example, some members of the European Avant-Garde and Modernism Studies – David Ayers, Moritz Baßler, Sascha Bru, Ursula Frohne and Benedikt Hjartarson – have proposed an edited volume exploring the concept of ‘reality’ in international Avant-Garde and Modernism. Their project originates from the idea that ‘[t]he historical avant-gardes defined themselves, and are defined by us, largely in terms of their relationship to various versions of realism,’ even though ‘at first glance [these movements] seem[ed] to take a counter-position against [it].’

This panel will examine ‘reality’ while focusing on the Italian Avant-Garde in comparative and interdisciplinary context. Some of the animating questions of the panel may include: how is ‘reality’ interpreted by single figures or specific contingents, and how does this notion differ from earlier and / or later interpretations? Is ‘reality’ connected to a new way of conceiving the sciences, spirituality, politics and aesthetics, and if so why?

Please send abstracts to psica@conncoll.edu by February 22