Fantastic Narratives and the Natural World

April 27-28, 2012

A Bilingual, Interdisciplinary Conference

hosted by Dalhousie’s Department of French and the Italian Studies Program

Organizers: Elisa Segnini and Vittorio Frigerio

fantasticnarratives@gmail.com

April 27th, 2012

University Hall, Dalhousie University

8:30 – 9:15am

Registration and Coffee

9:15 – 9:30am

Welcome

Robert Summerby-Murray, Dean, FASS

9:30 – 10:50am

Session I

Allegorical, Mythical and Poetical Readings of Natural Landscapes

Chair: Diana Pifano- Dalhousie University

Christopher R. Austin – Dalhousie University

The Raising of Govardhana Mountain: Krsna’s Divine Intervention in the Braj Landscape

Elisa Segnini – Dalhousie University

‘This place is almost too strange to believe’: Words and Blood in the Forest of the Suicides

Adleen Crapo – University of Toronto

The Interaction of Non-normative Bodies and Landscapes in Paradise Lost

10:50 – 11:05am

Coffee Break!

11:05 – 12:45pm

Session II

Ecology and the Fantastic

Chair: Nelleke Strik- Dalhousie University

Alexander E. Pichugin – Rutgers University

La nature et le fantastique dans le concept écologique d’Ernst Kreuder

Bruce Wyse – Wilfrid Laurier University

Uncanny Ecology and the Memento Mori Vision in Bulwer’s Kosem Kesamim, the Magician

Brian Noble – Dalhousie University

Animating T. Rex, Modeling the Perfect Race:  Osborn, Doyle and the Phantasmatics of Lost Ecologies

Michael House – Dalhousie University

Novalis and the Romantic Vision of Nature

12:45 – 2:00pm

Lunch!

…

2:00 -3:00pm

Keynote Speaker

Francesca Biliani  – University of Manchester

Oneiric Sexuality and Destabilised Social Personae

3:00 -5:00pm

Session III

Uncanny, Magical and Imaginary Spaces

Chair: Patricia DeMeo – Dalhousie University

Mathieu Lauzon-Dicsö – Université de Montréal

Les natures mortes de Catherine Dufour

Amy J. Ransom – Central Michigan University

Le sublime naturel dans le ‘Cycle de Neubourg’ de Daniel Sernine

Catherine d’Humières – Université de Cergy-Pontoise

Lorsque peinture, littérature et musique suivent la piste des sirènes.

L’imaginaire océanique dans De Profundis¸ album interactif de Miguelanxo Prado

April 28th, 2012

University Hall, Dalhousie University

8:30 – 9:15am

Registration and Coffee

9:15 – 11:00am

Session IV

Nature and Cultural Identity

Chair: Christopher Austin – Dalhousie University

Robert Summerby-Murray – Dalhousie University

The Fantastic Black Panther in the Writing of Charles G. D. Roberts: Forging Canadian

National Identity from Primeval Nature

Vittorio Frigerio – Dalhousie University

The Great North as Heaven and Hell. John Buchan’s Sick Heart River

Goh Sook Yi (Jaymee) – McMaster University

Pangolin Bear: Pinning Down the Real in Nickleodeon’s Avatar The Last Airbender

Paolo Matteucci – Dalhousie University

Fantastic Landscapes, Phantasmatic Contours: The Un-doing of Italy in Pasolini’s Petrolio

11:00 – 11:15Am

coffee break

11:15 – 12:40Am

Session V

Metamorphoses

Chair: Irène Chassaing- Dalhousie University

Walter Geerts – University of Antwerp, Belgium

Primo Levi’s Outlook for Man. A Reading of the Fantastic

Matthew Reza – Pembroke College Oxford

Tracing Changes: Metamorphosis in Kafka, Tutuola, and Calvino

Sophie Beaulé – St. Mary’s University

Monde végétal et devenir-intensité

12:40 – 2:00pm

Lunch!

…

2:00 – 3:30pm

Session VI

Enchanted Lands

Chair: Anne Bérubé, Dalhousie University

John Barnstead – Dalhousie University

Towards a Dendropoetics of Science Fiction

Dana Mount – Cape Breton University

The Spirited Forest in Salman Rusdhie’s Midnight Children: Entirely Other

Diana Pifano – Dalhousie University

The Role of Fantasy in The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao

Gina Beltràn – University of Toronto

The Rainforest as a Locus of Obscurity in Horacio Quiroga

3:30 – 4:00:pm

Coffee Break!

4:00 – 5:00pm

Keynote Speaker

Arnaud Huftier – Université de Valenciennes

‘Death by Landscape’ de Margaret Atwood: la représentation de la nature canadienne tue

5:00pm

Closing Remarks

Vittorio Frigerio

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