[ecrea] CFP: 4th Graduate Conference in Culture Studies "Irony: framing (post)modernity"

CECC – The Research Centre for Communication and Culture announces:

4th Graduate Conference in Culture Studies

January 23-24, 2014

Faculty of Human Sciences – Catholic University of Portugal, Lisbon



Irony: framing (post)modernity



Irony, either as a paradigmatic strategy of inquiry and critique or as a 
trait of character and existential perspective, has deeply informed 
Western culture and its philosophical and political tradition. The 
contemporary presence of irony in arts and everyday life – in the use 
of quotation, appropriation, pastiche, parody, kitsch, etc. – while 
questioning authenticity and authority, often conceals a lack of 
commitment that might be seen as a revival of the Jena romantics’ 
epistemological view, in some cases taken to a solipsistic extreme. On 
one hand, irony as a strategy can be subversive, by deconstructing 
dogmas and canons, as, for instance, in the challenging of the Kantian 
notion of beauty by the Duchampian ready-made. On the other hand, it can 
be conformist when it is expressed as an end in itself, devoid of 
demystifying quality. Refusing to be dialogical or dialectical, it 
leaves no room for significant aesthetical experience and/or desirable 
ethical and political reactions to the established thinking.



In order to reflect upon the ways irony frames (post)modernity, we must 
rehearse answers to questions such as: how is irony used as a trope in 
today’s artistic, cultural and political discourses, and practices? 
How do these rhetorical devices relate to postmodernity as an ironic 
epoch? How does irony make way for critique? Or, instead, how does irony 
neutralize the power of criticism by becoming self- referential?



This conference wishes to bring together doctoral students and post-docs 
working within disciplines that relate to the study of culture (arts, 
humanities and social sciences), and seek a forum for prolific debate.



Speakers should be prepared for a 20-minute presentation in English 
followed by discussion. Please send a 300-word abstract, as well as a 
brief biographical note (100 words) to (irony2014 /at/ gmail.com) by August 
31st, 2013. Proposals should list paper title, name, institutional 
affiliation and contact details. Successful applicants will be notified 
by September 30th, 2013.

Please note there is a conference registration fee of 50€ due by 
November 15th, 2013. We regret that travel and accommodation funding for 
conference participants is not available at this time.



Organizing Committee: Ana Dinger and Elsa Alves



Please find attached the Call for Papers.










Sónia Pereira

....................................................................

Assessoria Científica do Centro de Estudos de Comunicação e Cultura

Faculdade de Ciências Humanas

Universidade Católica Portuguesa

Palma de Cima

1649-023 Lisboa

Tel.: (+351) 217 214 018, ext. 3143

E-mail: (sonia.pereira /at/ fch.lisboa.ucp.pt)



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