Call for Papers deadline: 31 May 2026
Conference date: Friday 23 October 2026
Different metaphors have been used to represent, describe or conceptualise memory and its processes, from blank slate or wax tablet receiving impressions, to book where events are recorded and organised in narrative form, to canvas of images; from spatial loci or architectural structures – rooms, palaces, theatres – that organise and facilitate the retrieval of existing memories, to depths, sometimes traumatic, hidden in our unconscious, shaping our behaviour without us fully realising their force. Episodes, images or words are “etched” in one’s memory, suggesting unchangeability, but our memory can be “like a sieve”, unable to retain certain information. Memory needs help (aide-mémoire) but helps us know who we are. Monuments stand for and aim to preserve collective memories, asserting national, ethnic or historical identities, although those memories can be contested, as we witness when statues are pulled down. Mnemosyne, mother of the Muses, embodies the myth of the generative power of art and literature to encode and transmit – transfer, carry across – cultural identity. But amnesia is inextricable from memory, and heritage remains a contested field of preservation, transformation, misrepresentation, oblivion and active erasure.
Metaphor implies analogy, indirect comparison; it signals both connection and needing interpretation to identify the connection; it carries within it, in its etymology (Greek metapherein), the concept of transfer, travel, carrying over across a boundary; etymologically, it is mirrored by the Latin translatio, carrying or transferring words and meanings across languages.
Both metaphors and memories imply distance and bridging distances, movement across and connection across boundaries, spatial and temporal.
For this online conference, part of collaboration between the International Comparative Literature Association and the UNESCO Memory of the World programme, we invite papers that reflect on metaphors of memory from the perspective of, or to explore, relationships between comparative literature (broadly understood, including interdisciplinary approaches) and heritage. Topics can include, but are not limited to:
- the metaphors of tangible and intangible heritage
- memory as heritage
- metaphors of cultural transmission
- tradition as metaphor, metaphors of tradition
- translating memory, memory of translation
- metaphors of memory across geographical, cultural, linguistic boundaries
- visual metaphors as memory
- metaphors as cultural cognitive devices to interpret heritage
Proposals are welcome from scholars at any stage of their career and should include:
- a title;
- an abstract of up to 250 words;
- 3-5 keywords;
- a short biographical outline (up to 150 words)
Please send your proposals by 31 May 2026 to: [email protected] (please include the words “Metaphors of Memory, Comparative Literature and Heritage” in the subject line).
Participation in the conference is free.
A publication will be considered after the conference.
The conference is organised by Lucia Boldrini, Ipshita Chanda and Longxi Zhang, and is part of the AILC-ICLA/Memory of the World Series.
The conference will be hosted by the Centre for Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths, University of London.
The ICLA/MoW Series is coordinated jointly by Professor Lucia Boldrini (Honorary President, AILC-ICLA; Honorary Director, Centre for Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths, University of London), Professor Ipshita Chanda (AILC-ICLA President, 2025-28) and Professor Lothar Jordan (Chair of the MoW Sub-Committee for Education and Research, SCEaR).