Metaphors of Memory, Comparative Literature and Heritage
This online conference, part of the collaboration between the International Comparative Literature Association and the UNESCO Memory of the World programme, will reflect on metaphors of memory from the perspective of, or to explore, relationships between comparative literature (broadly understood, including interdisciplinary approaches) and heritage.
The conference is organised by Lucia Boldrini, Ipshita Chanda and Longxi Zhang within the AILC-ICLA/Memory of the World Series, and will be hosted online by the Centre for Comparative Literature, Goldsmiths, University of London.
Registration (free)
Download the Conference abstracts and biographies (PDF)
Programme
(draft)
(All times are UTC)
8.10-8.20 – Welcome and Introduction
8.20-9.50 – Panel 1: Archives, Remembrances, Metaphors
Sven Christian (Universidade Católica Portuguesa, Portugal), “One final act of love”
Ana Rita Figueira (University of Lisbon, Portugal), “Clay Metaphors. Attic vases as portable channels of (inherited) memory”
Anita Purcell-Sjölund (Dalarna University, Sweden), “Relational Preservation: Pasifika Memory, Narrative, and Oceanic Archives”
9.50-10.05 – Short break
10.05-11.35 – Panel 2: Narratives of Fragmented Memory
Cristina Martín Hernandez (University of Salamanca, Spain) “Memory in a Shoebox: Affective Archives and Memory Mestiza in Norma Elía Cantú’s Canícul”
Tuba (Tara) Mozafari (Tarbiat Modares University, Iran), “Fragmented Voices and Failing Archives: Metaphors of Memory in Annie Ernaux’s The Years and Sarah Kane’s Crave”
Patricia Georgina Rico León (Complutense University, Spain), “Echoing Loss: The Echo as a Metaphor of Memory in Valeria Luiselli’s Lost Children Archive”
11.35-12.05 – Lunch break
12.05- 13.35 – Panel 3: Poetry, Memory and Translation
Anjali (Jawaharlal Nehru University, India), “Dead Metaphors: Waldeinsamkeit, Ecological Memory, and the Heritage of Romantic Nature in Judith Schalansky's Verzeichnis einiger Verluste”
Ornela Barisone (Universidad Nacional de San Martín, Argentina), “Archipelagic Archives and Burning Poems: Metaphors of Fragile Memory in Latin American Experimental Poetry”
Assumpta Camps (University of Barcelona, Spain), “Translation and/as Memory in Giuseppe Ungaretti’s work”
13.35-13.50 – Short break
13.50-15.20 – Panel 4: Archives of Ruins, Silence and Loss
Nina Alihodžić-Hadžialić (University of Sarajevo, Bosnia), “Traces of Absence: The Spectrality of the Archive and Memorial Posthumanism”
Pari Argyrakaki (Democritus University of Thrace, Greece), “Mapping as an Aide-Mémoire: Reconstructing Lived Space in the Lost City of Smyrna through Archives”
Raphaëlle Killick (Researcher and Exhibition Writer, UK), “‘Morts pour la France’: Remembering African colonial soldiers in contemporary Senegal”
15.20-15.35 – Short break
15.35- 16.35 – Panel 5: Metaphors of Memory and the Shaping of Comparative Literature and Translation
Hassna Mohamed Ech Cherrate (Sultan Moulay Slimane University, Morocco), “Translating the Traces of Time: Conceptual Metaphors of Memory in Franco-Arabic Literary Translation”
Raluca Duna (The Romanian Academy, Bucharest, Romania), “The Aleph of Memory”
16.35-16.45 – Concluding remarks
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).
More information on the ICLA/ MoW collaboration
For further information please contact [email protected]