Conference on ‘Cultural Institutions and Literary Reception in Europe’

at the Institute of Germanic & Romance Studies, University of London, 2nd Floor Stewart House, Room ST274/5

Monday 14th to Tuesday 15th June 2010

organized by Research Project on the Reception of British and Irish Authors in Europe (RBAE) and supported by the British Academy, building upon the work of the British Academy Network on Reception Studies (2004-09)

The role of institutions in the process of reception (for example, historically, the Index of the Vatican, and current institutions such as the academic research centre) has at all times been powerful; at the same time, there are counter-institutions, representing oppositional forces (minorities, undergrounds and associated texts), which have equal importance. These have been the focus of interest of comparative studies, concerned with the ‘affinities’ and with their opposites (‘philias and ‘phobias), both common phenomena in reception history. They may have deep religious and historical roots; or they may be phenomena of a particular set of temporary conditions. At the present time, a new set of institutions is in the process of coming into play, institutions which mirror and utilize recent technology and are impacting on both the traditional and modern institutions of culture, whether the publisher, the journal, the university, the library, the book itself.  ‘Literature’ and ‘literacy’ are themselves changing their forms. This is a crucial moment to take stock.

Keynote speakers

Prof. Bernhard Fabian FBA (English and Bibliography, Münster)
‘Reception and “institutions”: The paradigmatic case of eighteenth-century Germany’

Prof. Joep Leerssen (Modern European Literature, Amsterdam)
‘Literary reception, national appropriation, and what philologists made of it'

Prof. Naomi Segal (IGRS)
‘Cultural Literacy in Europe: a project of ESF-COST’

Prof. Mihály Szegedy-Maszák (Comparative Literature, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest)
‘Comparative Literature and/or Reception History?’

Prof. Rosa Rabadán (Modern Languages, León)
‘Censorship under Franco: the opening of the Archives’

The panels:

Translation as Cultural Control and Cultural Expression
Chair: Prof. Ágnes Péter (English, Budapest)

The Site of the Intellectual in Europe
Chair: Prof. Gisèle Sapiro (Directrice de Recherche, CNRS, Paris)

History of the Book
Chair: William St Clair FBA (IES, London)

Correspondence Projects
Chair: Prof. Timothy Fulford (English, Nottingham Trent)

Translation in Cultural Context
Chair: Dr Francesca Billiani (Italian, Manchester)

Literary Censorship and Translation
Chair: Prof. Rosa Rabadán (Modern Languages, León)