The University of Gdańsk, Poland 16-17 May 2018
Beckett-poet, Beckett-novelist, Beckett-short story writer, Beckett-filmmaker, Beckett-playwright, Beckett-director: Samuel Beckett’s oeuvre comprises an impressive array of works of various forms, conventions and genres. Throughout his career he even experimented with writing for radio and television. Clearly, he was not exactly Janus-faced but always exploring, incessantly experimenting, inexhaustibly creative. Likewise, his readers were obliged to match Beckett’s artistic heterogeneity with interpretive skills of equal variety and potency: Beckett-modernist, Beckett-postmodernist, Beckett-postcolonialist, Beckett-satirist, Beckett-feminist, and so on, and so forth. The main theme for the 2018 seminar is Beckett’s Faces: the multifariousness of his artistic, semantic and critical legacy confronted with the specificities of the 21st century humanities, especially literary and theatre studies, arts, and philosophy around the world. The seminar provides ground for discussing Beckett as faced with other artists and thinkers. We are open to proposals that confront Beckett with his contemporaries, or pursue those who are inspired by his work. Tracing the masters of the past that are reflected in his work is yet another option. The form of the seminar should enable us not only to explore similarities and differences between individuals but also to depict broader historical and geographical perspectives. We are particularly interested in unusual frameworks that may contribute to the present understanding of how to contextualize Beckett.
The seminar will take place from 16 to 17 May 2018 in Sopot/Gdańsk, Poland. We would like to invite both scholars and artists who wish to approach the theme in their own ways to join us. While inviting papers on this subject, we also take the opportunity to announce that Professor S. E. Gontarski, has already accepted our invitation to take part in the seminar. There will be, moreover, a conversation with Andrzej Stasiuk (a major Polish contemporary writer) and round-table-discussions on Beckett and Leopardi, Beckett and Gombrowicz and Beckett and Różewicz.
The seminar will be part of the BETWEEN.POMIĘDZY festival of literature and theatre held in Sopot from 14 to 20 May 2018. This is the ninth annual festival organized by BETWEEN.POMIĘDZY. For participation in the 2018 seminar, please send 250-word abstracts of papers by 1 March 2018 to beckett@ug.edu.pl. The conference registration fee is 100 euros (accommodation not included). For information on previous seminars see: http://www.between.org.pl.
Organisers: Dr hab. Tomasz Wiśniewski (UG) Dr Bartosz Lutostański (UWM in Olsztyn) Aleksandra Wachacz, MA (UG) Rafał Borkowski, MA (UG)
The University of Gdańsk Samuel Beckett Seminars have been organized every year since 2010. They have been attended by scholars and artists from various parts of the world and have resulted in several publications. Guest speakers have included: Marcello Magni (Theatre de Complicite), Douglas Rintoul (Transport Theatre), Professor Enoch Brater (USA), Professor H. Porter Abbott (USA), Professor Derek Attridge (United Kingdom), Professor Nadia Kamel (Egypt), Dr Mark Nixon (Beckett International Foundation), Dr Nicholas Johnson (Trinity College Dublin), Professor Robson Correa de Camargo (Brazil) and Patricio Orozco (Argentina). Professor S.E. Gontarski is the honorary patron of the research group.
For more information, visit the official website.
The Samuel Beckett Society 