Call for Papers: “Pleasures and Sanctions” Yearly Conference

 

Bulgarian society for Eighteen-Century Studies

 

PLEASURES AND SANCTIONS

Interdisciplinary conference

10-11.10.2017 г.

Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, New Conference Hall

 

 

The topic of the conference encourages our colleagues to share their insights and interpretations on everyday life in the Balkans in the period between the 18^th to the 20^th c. Both history from below and royal patrimonialism can act as а methodological outset to the analyses of various cultural practices, connected with intimacy, food, hygiene, private and public ceremonies, and entertainment. In addition, the participants are invited to reflect on the perspectives of the foreign visitors to the Balkan region and their observations on the local celebrations and daily routines.

The regulations and sanctions for impropriety, and the institutions that perform them, are also among the suggested themes for this conference. Temporal and social stratifications on the basis of class, gender, religion, age, etc. are vital to the interpretation of the drives behind certain policies of regulation and methods of punishment.

Historiographical as well as literary texts, visual representations and musical variations of motives can act as viable sources for interpretation in view of the suggested topic.

 

Suggested thematic scope of the conference:

 

• Pleasure and religious sanctions;
• Wine and its social history;
• Harems, baths and fountains – Orientalism and imagology;
• History of food;
• Imperial ceremonies – between ascetics and excessiveness;
• Geography of taste – coffee and coffee shops;
• Revolution and pleasure – struggle as a “blood-drinking sacrifice” or “the drunkenness of a nation”;
• Prostitution – regulation, sanction ethical and gender characteristics;
• Women and the economy of veiling;
• Censorship ad auto censorship. Ideological mechanisms for production of culture.

 

The texts from the conference will be published in an electronic volume.

 

 

The title of your presentation and a short resume (up to 150 words) can be sent to 31 May 2017 г. at bulgc18@gmail.com