CALL FOR PAPERS
Society for Pirandello Studies Annual Conference
in collaboration with
London Centre for Interdisciplinary Research
Postcolonial Pirandello:
Grotesque Plays/Fiction, Postnational Narratives, Ethnic Discourse
Saturday 21 October 2023 - Sunday 22 October 2023
Venue: Birkbeck, University of London
The annual two-day conference of the Society for Pirandello Studies aims to embrace a wide variety of methods and approaches to Pirandello's œuvre, and to bring together theatre professionals, critics and scholars representing a range of disciplines. Both in-person and online/from-home 20-minute papers are welcome. This year's conference sheds light on Pirandello's awareness of colonialist/nationalist hegemony and its relation to more recent practices of (fiction/theatre) storytelling. Possible topics include but are not limited to:
- Pirandello's work critiquing war and fascism despite his formal membership to the latter;
- Pirandello's theatrical and literary representation of national and ethnic identity/-ties;
- Pirandello's uncovering of colonial discourse & hegemony at play in the north/south and mainland/island (Sicily) cultural narratives;
- Pirandello's metafiction: narratology, theory and practice;
- Pirandello's influence on later theories of metafiction;
- Metafiction and neighbouring categories, such as Romantic mise-en-abyme, the absurd, and the grotesque;
- Characters in twenty-first-century literature, cinema, and other media;
- Authorship, umorismo, and gender;
- Metafiction and authorship across disciplines, including sociological, psychological and anthropological perspectives.
Abstracts and biographies of c.200 words each (in English) for papers of 20 minutes' duration to be presented either in person or remotely should be sent to Matt Mild at m.mild@alumni.
The deadline for abstracts is Friday 16 June 2023.
Society members registration fee (online or in-person participation) - 20 GBP
Standard registration fee (online participation) – 45 GBP
Standard registration fee (in-person participation) – 90 GBP
For further information about The Society for Pirandello Studies, including membership and Pirandello Studies (the annual journal), please visit our website at http://www.ucd.ie/pirsoc/