[H-verkko] CFP: CFP: Nation, Myth and Science

[agricola at utu.fi]

Agricolan Artikkelipyyntötietokantaan
( http://agricola.utu.fi/nyt/pyynnot/ )
on tullut seuraava ilmoitus:

CFP: Nation, Myth and Science

Nation, Myth and Science

Time 	Saturday 8th November 2008, Helsinki
Venue	Tieteiden talo, Kirkkokatu 6, sali 505, Helsinki	

Key notes delivered by
•	Professor Patrick Geary (UCLA)
•	Professor Pertti Anttonen (University of Helsinki)


Universities and scientists, writers and publishing houses,
playwrights and theatres, painters and art societies all played an
important role in constructing and defining the nation-states and
their attributes in the 19th and early 20th century. In this workshop
we aim deconstructing the notion of constructing the nation by asking

•	how the methodologies of the sciences concerned with the national
past (e.g. history, medieval studies, folklore studies, archaeology,
comparative philology and literature studies) contributed to the
establishment of the narration of national origin and originality
•	how the fictional and non-fictional representations of the nations
influenced each other and intermingled in the process of nation
building.

We would like to bring to the discussion the development of different
methods of presenting, organizing, classifying and distributing
information, images and narrations concerning the origins of nations
and their special characteristics. No nation was born in a void but
the foreign influences were often esteemed as dangerous or corruptive
for the national culture. Thus, we are also pondering the role of
otherness in creating the idea of the specificity of ethnic nations,
especially in the framework of the intellectual movements – including
ethnic nationalism – moving across the frontiers.

The workshop welcomes researchers across scholarly fields and
disciplines. The thematic sessions will draw on the diverse
disciplinary perspectives to create - we hope - a productive and
innovative forum. The workshop presentations may engage with the
following questions, for example:
•	building the categories of nationality and citizenship vs other
categories of self-identification
•	forms of presenting and categorizing knowledge as a means to create
national identities
•	openness vs withdrawn nature of national culture; the identities of
the centre vs border areas
•	the power discourses and their counter discourses; the discursive
patterns of self-identification, exoticization and characterization;
different interpretative or textual communities within the national
canon
•	the interrelationship between fact and fiction in the narrations of
the national pasts
•	national particularism versus stereotypes concerning the other;
“us” and “them” in national discourses.

We welcome working papers from established researchers, doctoral
students and those working on their Master's thesis. Of the 30
minutes reserved for each presentation, 20 minutes should be spent on
the presentation proper and 10 minutes on discussion. Our working
language is mainly English. Please send an abstract of 300 words with
a short CV to Ilona Pikkanen (ilona.pikkanen at finlit.fi). The dead line
of abstracts is 15th August 2008.

The acceptance of the papers will be announced in September 2008.
Papers are to be delivered beforehand and the dead line is 25th
October 2008.
The workshop is organized by the Finnish Literature Society, NCMS
(Nordic Centre for Medieval Studies) and the Departments of History
and Political History at the University of Helsinki. 

Work group

Derek Fewster, University of Helsinki

Pauli Kettunen, University of Helsinki

Tuomas M. S. Lehtonen, Finnish Literature Society

Ilona Pikkanen, Finnish Literature Society

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Ilmoituksen lähetti: Ilona Pikkanen <ilona.pikkanen at finlit.fi>
Ilmoitus vanhentuu: 15.08.2008
Lisätietoja WWW-osoitteesta: http://www.finlit.fi/tutkimus