CFP: Liberation, Occupation — Inspiration Bonaparte? Literary and Artistic Responses to Napoleon

  • March 28, 2014
  • Posted by: Elijah Gartin
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Due date: 30 June 2014.

Thursday 13 November-Sunday 16 November 2014 at the Karl Anatol Center, California State University, Long Beach. 

Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821) remains a fascinating, ambivalent, and polarizing figure some 200 years after his defeat at Waterloo in 1815. From the onset of the French Revolution in 1789, responses of authors and artists ranged from celebrations of a dawning age of liberation to prophesies of anarchic violence. The rise of Bonaparte from General (1795) to Consul (1799) and Emperor (1804) constitutes a paradigm shift from an Age of Revolution defined by the philosophy of happiness — through individual and national autonomy — to a period of republican military dictatorship that at once inspired, disappointed, and outraged thinkers around the world. As a representative of the liberation ideals of the French Revolution and a threat to regional concepts of autonomy through occupation and regime change, Napoleon is one of the most paradoxical inspirations ever to ride the horse of (literary and art) history.

The conference student organizing committee of the CSULB Department of Romance, German, and Russian Languages and Literatures invites investigations of literary and artistic responses to Napoleon Bonaparte. Papers by students are especially encouraged and will be given preference. The conference language will be English.

Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  • Prelude: Artistic Responses to French Occupations from 1792-1798
  • Artistic Responses to Napoleonic Occupations from 1799-1815
  • Artistic, Musical, and Cinematic Responses to Napoleon
  • Bonaparte as Liberator and Reformer
  • Pro- and Anti-Napoleonic Poetry, Drama, Literary Prose, and Publications
  • Literary Correspondences on Bonaparte
  • Bonaparte, Literature, and Art in Latin America and North America
  • Bonaparte, Literature, and Art in Africa, Asia, and Australia
  • Bonaparte Satire and Caricature
  • Artist Responses to Regime Change and the Ideals of the French Revolution
  • Sine Bonaparte Non: Artists Obsessed with Bonaparte
  • Bonapartism and the Bonapartist Legacy in Literature and Art

Please submit one-page abstracts in English to [email protected] by 30 June 2014.