[ecrea] The Taboo Conference 2016

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Taboo Humo(u)r: language, culture, society, and the media
https://portal.upf.edu/web/taco

September 20th-21st, 2016

In a world that seems continuously to be pushing the envelope of what is 
acceptable to the inhabitants of specific linguistic and cultural 
contexts, this interdisciplinary conference acknowledges the importance 
of investigating taboos and their reinforcement/breaking in various 
areas of language, culture and society, and across different cultures. 
We propose to explore the delicate balance and subtle boundaries between 
the need for inclusion and respect for different ethnic, religious, 
sexual, etc. backgrounds – which seems to be at the basis of modern 
multicultural societies – and a (un)conscious push towards the breaking 
of existing taboos, for example for shock value, as in the case of 
comedy and art. In such context, investigation of the linguistic, 
cultural, social, institutional and personal implications of taboo 
reinforcement/breaking appears of extreme value.

For its 3rd edition, The Taboo Conference series will specifically 
address the intricacies of taboo and humour/comedy in the broad contexts 
of language, culture, society, and the media and in its various 
occurrences from the points of view of production, performance, and 
perception/reception. The subject of taboo and humour seems to have 
become especially relevant in the last few years, in which political 
correctness at both the institutional and individual level has been 
seen, on the one hand, as a crucial tool in protecting minorities from 
verbal abuse and in preventing the reinforcement of stereotypes and, on 
the other hand, as a set of measures and a way of thinking which 
significantly stymie free speech in many aspects of the public sphere.

This conference seeks to explore the shifting boundaries of the 
acceptability of taboo humour and comedy in their various incarnations 
as produced and perceived in today’s multicultural society, both in 
real-life and virtual communities and contexts. Possible areas of 
inquiry include, for example, the interplay and the influence of 
political orientations on comedy, political satire, identity and gender 
politics, ethnic humour and stereotypes, comedy tackling different kinds 
of non-normative behaviour, political correctness and the discourse 
surrounding it, and the debate between real and perceived offense 
through comedy.

We welcome individual proposals or pre-organized panels from different 
disciplines pertaining – but by no means limited – to the following 
thematic areas and their intersections with humour and comedy:

- Sex and sexuality (e.g. nudity, bizarre sex)
- Death and dying (e.g. aging, widowhood, funerals and burials, mortal 
accidents)
- Sickness, disability and deformity
- Scatology (e.g. toilet humour)
- Politics (e.g. political corruption, political incorrectness, 
prejudice, discrimination, party politics)
- Religions and blasphemy (rituals, prejudice, afterlife)
- Social institutions and cultural values (e.g. drugs and alcohol, law 
and order, family, education, food and eating habits, gambling, personal 
image, work ethics, social hypocrisy)
- Money (meanness, greed, theft, exploitation, waste, extravagance, poverty)
- Changing social attitudes towards violence, exploitation and abuse 
(prostitution, slavery, trafficking, rape, children’s rights)

Confirmed keynote speakers include Delia Chiaro (University of 
Bologna-Forlì) and Giselinde Kuipers (University of Amsterdam).

The working language for the conference is English. Each paper 
presentation should be scheduled for 15 minutes to be followed by 
10-minute question time to the panel.

300-word abstracts and a brief bionote should be sent to 
(thetabooconference /at/ gmail.com) by 15th January 2016 with the subject 
“TaCo2016 – proposal”. If you are interested in submitting a 
pre-organized panel, please contact us by the same deadline.

Notification of acceptance for both abstracts and panels will be given 
by 15th February 2016.

Facebook: TaCo - The Taboo Conference Series
Twitter: @TACOConference




Dr Chiara Bucaria
Department of Interpretation and Translation (DIT)
University of Bologna at Forlì
Coordinator of the Taboo Conference Series
https://portal.upf.edu/web/taco





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