Poetics Of The Sayable: Framing Crisis And Conflict In Contemporary Spain
Confirmed keynote speakers: Dr David Becerra Mayor (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid); Dr Helena Buffery (University College Cork)
Organisers: Prof. Helena Miguélez-Carballeira (Bangor University); Dr Maite Usoz de la Fuente (University of Leicester).
Funding organisation: Institute of Modern Languages Research, Regional Conference Scheme
The aim of this interdisciplinary one-day conference is to consider how recent experiences of crisis and conflict in Spain have been culturally framed within the Spanish public sphere. A working premise is that the discourses of Spanish nationalism and unionism, intensified by the arrival into parliamentary politics of far-right parties, provide one such cultural frame (to use Butler’s term) for what is sayable.
Focusing on works published from 2010 onwards, we will consider the way in which cultural texts from the Peninsula have reflected crises and conflicts over the past decade; which narratives have been promoted, celebrated and institutionalised, and which have been disavowed, ignored or silenced.
Programme
Registration and Welcome
Chair: Helena Miguélez-Carballeira
An entomological look at the rural world:Les cuques[Bugs] (2020) by Julià Guillamon -María Dasca Batalla, Universitat Pompeu Fabra.
El (falso) breve viaje al país del pueblo. Sobre intelectualidad y territorio-Àlex Matas Pons, Universitat de Barcelona.Online.
The Depiction and Politics of an Empty Spain:Un amor(2020) by Sara Mesa andContra la España vacía(2021) by Sergio del Molino -Marta Pérez-Carbonell, Colgate University.
‘Everybody Hates a Tourist’: La España Rural as Theme Park -Gareth Wood, University College London.
Break
States of Flux: Staging Crisis 2008-2021 -Helena Buffery, University College Cork.
Break
Chair: Maite Usoz de la Fuente
La imaginación colonializada: la independencia de Catalunya y sus (im)posibilidades figurativas -Júlia Ojeda Caba, Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.
The Spanish literary establishment vis-à-vis the independence of Catalonia (On-line) -Jordi Larios, University of St Andrews.Online
Chair: Maite Usoz de la Fuente
What does empathy mean in the Basque context? Some remarks on Edurne Portela’sEl eco de los disparos (2016) -Gorka Mercero Altzugarai, University of Liverpool.
The Case for Comparatism -Christian Claesson, Lund University.
Break
Chair: Helena Miguélez-Carballeira
Crisis in the Courtroom: Progressive Politics and the Rule of Law in Spain Today -Steven Marsh, University of Illinois.
Poetics of the Unsayable: Subjectivity and Cynicism in Theorising Crisis -Alejandro Veiga-Expósito, University of Warwick
La simbolización de ‘lo real’ desde un inconsciente ‘otro’: Literatura, ideología y explotación en España post-15M –David Becerra, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid.
