The 7th International Annual conference of the Samuel Beckett Society will take place in Buenos Aires, Argentina on 26-28 October, 2022 with ‘Beckett and Poety/Beckett y La Poesía’ as its theme.
Under the title “Beckett & poetry”, we seek to investigate and debate the role played in Beckett studies by different critical approaches to his poetry. Beckett’s first published poem, WHoroscope (1930), begins with a question: “What’s that?” His last text, from 1989, is also a poem, which begins and ends with another question: “Comment dire” or, in Beckett’s own English version, “What is the word”. Between these extremes, it is possible to trace a path that leads to a poetics of disenchantment, a kind of writing that demonstrates the subject’s inability to establish an effective connection with the world. In the first case, the question shapes an attempt to access that which is being observed; in the latter, it reflects the continuity of such an attempt to find a word that can create a link between the inner world of the poetic self and its outside. Concerns of this kind prove a constant and allow for the consideration that Samuel Beckett’s poetic output and the different approaches and appropriations manifest in it reveal and reflect a great deal of his general aesthetic project.
Bajo el título Beckett & la poesía se busca investigar y debatir el papel que el análisis y las aproximaciones a la obra poética de este autor ocupan en los estudios beckettianos. El primer poema que publica Beckett, WHoroscope (1930), comienza con una pregunta: “What’s that?” Su último texto, de 1989, también es un poema, que comienza y termina con otra pregunta: “Comment dire” o, en su versión inglesa, “What is the word”. A partir de estos extremos, es posible trazar un recorrido que conduce hacia una poética del desencanto, una escritura que pone en evidencia la imposibilidad de un sujeto para conectarse de manera segura con el mundo exterior. En el primer caso la pregunta asume el intento de acceder a aquello que se está observando; en el último, refleja el intento continuo de encontrar una palabra que pueda establecer una conexión entre el mundo interior del pensamiento del yo poético y el mundo exterior. Preocupaciones de este tenor proporcionan una constante por la cual consideramos que en la obra poética de Samuel Beckett (y en las diferentes aproximaciones y apropiaciones que esta producción manifiesta) se devela parte importante de su proyecto estético general.
The official languages of the 7th International Conference are English and Spanish, but a reduced number of papers in French and Portuguese will also be accepted. All submissions, abstracts and papers must be written in one of these languages. Interpretation services will be offered during the conference to open discussions in English and Spanish.
Los idiomas oficiales del 7mo Congreso son el inglés y el español, pero también se aceptará un reducido número de ponencias en francés y portugués, por lo que las participaciones, resúmenes y artículos deberán estar escritas en uno de estos idiomas. Durante el congreso se ofrecerán servicios de interpretación para los diálogos en inglés/español.
A full list of suggested topics, as well as submission details and and the call for papers are available here.
Note: A number of travel bursaries for post-graduate, and early-stage researchers will be provided by the Society. On completion of the conference selection process an announcement will be made inviting candidates who have been successfully included in the programme, and who are eligible, to apply for a bursary.
The Samuel Beckett Society 