A conference presented by the Perth Medieval and Renaissance
Group, in conjunction with the Centre for Medieval and Early Modern
Studies at the University of Western Australia.
Details:
Conference Title:
'Receptions: Medieval and Early Modern Cultural
Appropriations'
The conference will explore cultural appropriations in, by and of
the medieval and early modern world, through three
sub-themes:
1) The appropriation of earlier cultures by the medieval or early
modern world; 2) Cultural exchanges and frontier encounters within
the medieval and early modern world; and
3) The reception or appropriation of the medieval or early modern
by later periods.
Date:
17-18 August 2012
Venue:
St Catherine's College, UWA.
Plenary Speakers:
Professor David Konstan
(Brown University, UWA IAS Professor-at-Large, CHE Advisory Board
member)
Professor Jacquline Van Gent
(University of Western Australia, CHE Research Investigator)
Associate Professor Loiuse D'Arcens (The University of Wollongong,
CHE Assoicate Investigator)
The programme includes a range of exciting papers from
local, national and international scholars.
Registration is now open
Registration rates, inclusive of GST are:
• Full Registration: $150
AUD
• PMRG Member or Standard
Concession: $130 AUD
• Student PMRG Members: $90
AUD
• Day Rate: $90 AUD
For more information, including: a draft programme, a list of
abstracts, and
to register online, please visit the:
PMRG conference website.
A free public lecture by Associate Professor
Louise D'Arcens titled "Reception, Recovery, Re-creation: The
Singular Story of the Middle Ages in Australia" will precede the
conference on 16 August 2012 at 6:00 PM in the Gentilli Lecture
Theatre (Geography Building, 1.31).
Abstract:
"This illustrated talk will explore the varied, surprising, and
persistent afterlife of the Middle Ages in Australian culture. As
the late eighteenth century was the foundational period of British
settlement in the Australian colonies, High Enlightenment ideals
have had an indisputable impact on Australian public life. Yet the
story is not so simple. A growing recognition of the greater
complexity of colonial Australia¹s relationship with the European
past has led to a more nuanced account of its distinctive
engagement with a cultural legacy stretching back to the medieval
period. A picture is now emerging of a colonial culture in which
medievalism - the creative modern response to the Middle Ages and
adaptation of medieval concepts - has existed as a major aesthetic
and cultural presence in Australian literature, architecture,
political ceremony, theatre, art, and even sport. This thriving but
often unacknowledged subculture, with its preoccupations with
either romance, chivalry and folklore, or irrationality, disorder,
and Gothic gloom, has been far more formative of settler
Australia¹s cultural identity than has been recognized. Looking at
examples from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, this
talk will explore just some of the large body of medievalism
Australia has produced, and will discuss some of the ways we can
understand its highly localized interpretations of medieval motifs,
narrative forms, legends, and personages."
