Great Incompletes: Italy’s Unfinished Endeavors
Columbia University
Department of Italian Graduate Conference
3-4 February, 2017

Keynote speaker: Professor Thomas Harrison (UCLA)

This conference will investigate the question of incompleteness in Italian cultural and social history through an array of theoretical perspectives and case studies. From the unfinished works of Dante to Puccini’s Turandot, from Gramsci’s Quaderni del carcere to the grandi opere of the Salerno-Reggio Calabria, the list of “great incompletes” is as long as it is diverse. What do incomplete projects have in common? How does an unfinished film differ from an unfinished bridge or novel? How can a text be deemed complete? Are our expectations as readers, viewers and witnesses influenced because of this purported unfinished-ness?

The history of Italian art, philosophy and politics is also brimming with works that deploy incompleteness as a deliberate narrative device. Michelangelo’s poetics of non-finito and the aesthetic debate on the possibility/impossibility of reaching perfection in art, reappears in Calvino’s Se una notte d’inverno un viaggiatore. The openness of Gadda’s Querpasticciaccio brutto de via Merulana challenges the limits of a literary genre, just as Antonioni’s inherently incomplete plots inform his spatial and temporal filmic aesthetics. Many have noticed a connection between unfinished infrastructure projects, clientelism, corruption, and organized crime: the works’ ability to remain perpetually “in progress” is precisely their point.

We welcome papers in English that explore the viability of incompleteness as a theoretical notion across media, its scope as a technique that may or may not solicit a specific hermeneutical strategy, and finally its implications as a political and philosophical concept.

Possible topics may include:

• Unfinished works and their textual tradition
• Infrastructural incompleteness and organized crime
• A poetics of *non-finito*
• Reaching perfection in art
• Incompleteness across media
• Incompleteness as a narrative device
• Pastiche/Patchworks vs. Incompleteness
• Hermeneutical strategies facing incompleteness
• Incomplete plots/spaces/times
• Incompleteness vs. Failure

Please send a 250-word abstract in English and a brief bio (50-60 words) no later than November 20, 2016  to: graditalian.columbia@gmail.com

Cities and Citizenship in the Enlightenment / Cité et citoyenneté des Lumières
2017 ISECS Seminar for Early Career Scholars
Université du Québec, Montreal
11–15 September, 2017

The International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ISECS) is pleased to announce the 2017 International Seminar for Early-Career Eighteenth-Century Scholars. Colleagues from all fields of eighteenth-century studies are invited to submit abstracts for this one-week event. Formerly called the East-West Seminar, the International Seminar for Early-Career Eighteenth-Century Scholars brings together young researchers from a number of countries each year. The 2017 meeting will take place in Montreal, Canada and will be organized by the University of Quebec in Montreal (UQAM) and the Research Group on the History of Sociabilities (RGHS).

The seminar will be held from Monday, September 11 to Friday, September 15, 2017 in Montreal, under the direction of Pascal Bastien (History, UQAM), Marc André Bernier (Literature, UQTR), Sébastien Charles (Philosophy, UQTR), Peggy Davis (Art History, UQAM), Benjamin Deruelle (History,UQAM), Geneviève Lafrance (Literature, UQAM), Laurent Turcot (History, UQTR).

The seminar will also be an opportunity to pay tribute to Professor Robert Darnton (Harvard University), former president of ISECS as well as co-founder, with Jochen Schlobach (1938–2003), of the East-West Seminar.

The theme this year’s seminar will be Cities and Citizenship in the Enlightenment. The ISECS International Seminar for Early Career Scholars will engage discussions on the forms, representations and modalities of political action and social and political identities in the eighteenth century. ‘Citizenship’ in the eighteenth century did not yet encompass the notions of property rights, equality before the courts, or even the electoral system of political representation. The result of a process rather than a status, urban citizenship can be understood as an appropriation of the urban space, the sociabilities found therein, and, fundamentally, civic culture within a civil society. The study of citizenship should not, therefore, be restricted to nationality and naturalization. Is the public space strictly an urban space? How should we understand political dynamics, collective emotions and urban citizenship in eighteenth-century cities?

If the Marxist undertones of the Habermas model have been questioned over the years, the notion of ‘public space’ still retains its significance and relevance. The questions surrounding language, verbal exchanges, and discourse in general remain at the center of the reflections by historians of society and class consciousness. At the crossroad of texts, discourses and practices, sociability is the field of enquiry for those who wish to grasp the different forms of public opinion and citizen commitment, especially within eighteenth-century urbanization. A detailed description of this theme is available online.

The seminar is limited to 15 participants. The proposals (approx. 2 pages, single spaced) should be based on an original research project (e.g. a doctoral dissertation) which addresses one of the aspects mentioned above. Because this is a seminar rather than a conference, each participant will be given approximately one hour to present the texts and questions that will then form the basis of a group discussion. Preference will be given to scholars who are at the beginning of their academic career (PhD or equivalent for less than six years). The official languages are French and English.

Accommodation costs will be covered in full by the organizers, who will be responsible for reserving hotel rooms. Other travel costs are currently under evaluation for a grant from the Government of Canada. If the seminar should benefit from such funding, airline tickets and other living expenses (lunches and dinner) may also be covered.

As it is the case each year, the proceedings of the seminar will be published by Honoré Champion (Paris) in the Lumières internationales series.

Applications should include the following information: a brief curriculum vitae with date of PhD (or equivalent); a list of principal publications and scholarly presentations; a brief description of the proposed paper (approx. 2 pages, single-spaced); and one letter of recommendation. Colleagues are invited to submit proposals by January 30, 2017. Please send abstracts by e-mail to Pascal Bastien: bastien.pascal@uqam.ca.