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> >From: "Decadence Conference" <[log in to unmask]> > >Subject: CFP: Decadence: Excess, Erosion, and Transgression >(12/1/06; VSGSA, 3/2/07-3/3/07) > >CALL FOR PAPERS > >DECADENCE: EXCESS, EROSION, AND TRANSGRESSION >The 2007 UC Irvine Visual Studies Graduate Student Association Conference >March 2-3, 2007 > >SUBMISSIONS DEADLINE: DECEMBER 1, 2006 > >"Decadent" is typically a value judgment, and a pejorative one at >that, associated with particular artistic styles, habits of >consumption, and historical periods. For example, when fin de si=E8cle >members of the Symbolist and Aesthetic Movements were derided as >"decadent," some reclaimed the term to invert the contemporary >value system that had thus labeled them. As one source notes, writers >of the 19th century Decadent movement began "to consider modern >Europe's elaborate culture as a degeneracy, rather than the pinnacle >of human achievement." > >Beyond reclaiming "the decadent," we would like to investigate how >something comes to be labeled as such. What motivates and sustains >the construction of "decadence?" > >We propose that decadence is predicated upon the presence of a >boundary (cultural, historical, aesthetic, etc.) that can be exceeded >or eroded. Whether or not it is sanctioned, decadence is underpinned >by a fundamental operation of transgression. > >How are the transgressions of decadence relevant to the political >analyses of culture (material, visual, mass, and high), history >(capital, class, identity, and dialectics), and aesthetics (taste and >morals)? > >Submissions may explore, but are not limited to, some of the >following topics and keywords: > >CULTURE > >What effect does decadence have on the boundaries between art, life, >politics, etc. within (or across) the public and private spheres? >Is the visual culture of capitalism inherently decadent? >Should we disengage Decadence from its 19th century connotations or >is it necessarily informed by them? >What are the valences of decadence across Modernist cultural >production (e.g. Adorno's critique of mass culture or Greenberg's >critique of kitsch)? > >HISTORY > >How do cultures of (over)consumption relate to the international >exertion of power and influence? >How does decadence construct and police the boundaries of class >through taste and morality? >If decadence implies a value judgment, what is its effect upon the >construction and interpretation of identities? >How does "decadence" as a theoretical construct facilitate >historical narratives of advance and decline? > >AESTHETICS > >What are the political stakes of a decadent sensuality or synaesthesia? >What is the relationship between decadence and "decay" (figured as >the obscure, arcane, outmoded, obsolete)? >How does decadence construct and police the boundaries of Art through >taste and morality? Alternatively, how does decadence police the >boundaries of morality through Art? >How does decadence function in contemporary art (in shows such as >Ecstasy: In and About Altered States, in the "return" of craft, in >the form of the wunderkammer)? > > KEYWORDS >.addiction; debauchery; indulgence; intoxication >.aesthetics of violence; exploitation; punishment >.boundaries; liminality; territory; transgressions >.Carnivale; Degenerate Art >.decline; erosion >.Empire (Ancient Rome; La Belle =C9poque) >.excess; surplus >.exotic; grotesque; the Other; stigma >.fetish; perversion >.jouissance; pain; pleasure; playfulness; sensuality >.the sacred; the profane; profanity >.the sublime > > >PLEASE SUBMIT 300 word abstracts along with your name, institution, >email address, phone number, and C.V. to [log in to unmask] >by December 1, 2006. > >FOR MORE INFORMATION, please email [log in to unmask] > >"Decadence" >UCI Ph.D. Program in Visual Studies >[log in to unmask] >www.decadenceconference.com > ******************* The German Studies Call for Papers List Editor: Stefani Engelstein Assistant Editor: Megan McKinstry Sponsored by the University of Missouri Info available at: http://www.missouri.edu/~graswww/resources/gerlistserv.html