Group for War and Culture Studies
7th Annual Conference
Friday 23 May 2003
University of Westminster, 309 Regent Street, London W1B 2UW, U.K.

CALL FOR PAPERS
NATIONS AND NARRATIONS: War and Narrative in Twentieth-Century Europe

The last decade of the twentieth century and the beginning of the twenty-first have seen a flood of ‘factual’ books, television documentaries and feature films concerned with the events and experiences of war in twentieth-century Europe. At the same time, many contemporary novelists and artists have turned to the twentieth century’s wars, not merely as historical context but as creative source, in order to explore the dynamic dialogue between past and present and to examine present-day European cultural, social and political identities at the individual and collective levels.

The conference will seek to address questions concerning this contemporary preoccupation with the wars of the twentieth century. Is this nothing more than the continuation of an artistic tradition in which war functions as a source of creative tension and drama? Or is there something specific about the ways in which contemporary writers, visual artists and film-makers are seeking to work through experiences that remain problematic in our histories and cultures, and in the very notion of European cultural and political identity?

In addition to research in the fields of literary and cultural studies, in cultural, social and political history, art history and media studies, the Conference seeks to contribute to the developing academic discipline of cultural memory.

The term ‘narrative’ should be interpreted in its widest sense, and contributions may focus on all forms of cultural production. Abstracts of between 250 and 500 (max) words, focusing on the contemporary treatment of twentieth-century European wars, should be sent by Friday 31st January 2003 to:

Debra Kelly,
GWACS Coordinator,
Department of Modern Languages
School of Social Sciences,
Humanities and Languages
University of Westminster,
309 Regent Street,
London W1B 2UW,
U.K.
e-mail kellydjk1@aol.com

Proposals may be made in English or French, the two working languages of the Group for War and Culture Studies.