Pleasure in the Text \u2014 Pleasure of the Text<\/strong><\/p>\n 17 April 2010, Paris, Reid Hall Campus<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n Just as we seek pleasure in our daily lives, so, as readers, we seek pleasure in literary texts. We may look for and discover pleasure in the content of the text \u2014 that is, in representations of emotions, situations or images \u2014 but we may also look for it in the form of the language that attempts to capture them.<\/p>\n How do the content and the form of a literary text stimulate readerly pleasure? Hegel sought aesthetic delight in the ideal of an \u2018immanently harmonious and self-reliant\u2019 narrative. Barthes suggested that the pleasure of the text is independent of \u2018the logic of understanding\u2019 and alluded to its equivocation by calling it \u2018a drift, something both revolutionary and asocial [\u2026] something neuter\u2019. For his part, Lacan advanced the view that language is asymptotic to carnal pleasure and that the text will never successfully communicate the peculiarity of this experience.<\/p>\n To what extent \u2014 if at all \u2014 can intellectual, aesthetic, erotic or sexual pleasure be represented in or by a text? What textual devices can be used to convey pleasure? Does the contemporary proliferation of different media further problematise the relationship between pleasure and text? Are different media capable of conveying different pleasures? Do the pleasure and the methods of its representation evolve in a temporal and spatial sense?<\/p>\n The conference theme, \u2018The Pleasure in <\/em>and of<\/em> the Text\u2019, can be interpreted in many ways. We invite potential speakers to enquire into the sources and conditions of the reader\u2019s jouissance<\/em> and to analyse its various forms as well as to explore the possibilities, temptations and risks of reproducing the \u2018real life\u2019 pleasure.<\/p>\n The\u00a0conference\u00a0will\u00a0have\u00a0an\u00a0international\u00a0and\u00a0interdisciplinary\u00a0character.\u00a0The\u00a0following list is neither prescriptive nor exhaustive:<\/p>\n \u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Comparative Literature<\/p>\n \u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Modern Languages and Linguistics<\/p>\n \u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Philosophy of Language<\/p>\n \u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Continental and Analytical Philosophy<\/p>\n \u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Aesthetics and Visual Arts<\/p>\n \u2013\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Gender Studies<\/p>\n Abstract proposals (max. 300 words) for twenty-minute papers in English should be sent as a Microsoft Word attachment to the conference organising committee at: pleasure2010@kent.ac.uk<\/a><\/p>\n The email should include the name of the author, institution and a short bio. You should also indicate in your proposal any audiovisual requirements you may have.<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The deadline for abstract submission is 20 January 2010.<\/strong><\/p>\n Funding may be available for University of Kent speakers. Check application form at\u00a0THIS ADDRESS<\/a>.<\/p>\n Selected papers will be considered for publication in the fifth issue of the on-line research journal Skepsi<\/em>.<\/p>\n![\"Pleasure](\"http:\/\/farm5.static.flickr.com\/4047\/4190052651_d27f0daf80.jpg\")
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