Call for Papers

MYTH, LITERATURE, AND THE UNCONSCIOUS

Date: 2-4 September, 2010

Venue: Wivenhoe Park Campus, University of Essex, Colchester, UK

An international conference organized by the Centre for Myth Studies at the University of Essex, supported by the Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies and the Centre for Psychoanalytic Studies

The Centre for Myth Studies at the University of Essex is pleased to announce an international conference on “Myth, Literature, and the Unconscious” to be held at the Wivenhoe Park campus, 2-4 September, 2010. We invite proposals for papers (of 20 minutes duration), or panel sessions, dealing with the conjunction of myth, psychoanalysis, and literary-artistic activity. While proposals on any aspect of myth, literary, and psychoanalytic studies are very welcome, the organisers would particularly encourage interdisciplinary contributions. The topics might include, but will not be confined to:
Literary re-inscriptions of myths and mythic patterns
Literature as mythmaking
The significance and meaning of myths in psychoanalytic theory
Myth as the language of the unconscious
Archetypes, symbols, and metamorphoses
Myths in the inner and outer worlds
Dreams, visions, myths
Myth and re-enchantment
The role of myth in medical practice
William Blake and myth
Time, space and the primordial
Myth and modernism

A selection of papers from the conference will be published.

The deadline for proposals is 28 February, 2010. Proposals should take the form of a title for the paper and a 250-word abstract, accompanied by a brief biographical note, including institutional affiliation where appropriate. To submit a proposal, or for more information, please write to Dr Sanja Bahun, Department of Literature, Film, and Theatre Studies, University of Essex, Wivenhoe Park, Colchester, Essex CO4 3SQ or, by e-mail, to mythic@essex.ac.uk.

Note: Thanks to the generosity of the Bean Trust, a limited number of bursaries will be made available to speakers contributing specifically to a panel session on the place that William Blake’s work occupies in the field of myth, literature, and the unconscious. If you are interested in applying for one of these bursaries, please indicate this in your proposal.