05.04.2021Travelling Narratives: Modernity and the Spatial Imaginary

Cultures have always been in contact with as well as imagined spaces other than their own. Ever since the age of discovery, however, the relations, links and ruptures between different spaces have played an increasingly significant role in the cultural imaginary, taking on new urgency in today’s world of ever increasing mobility and global networks.

This three-day symposium hosted by the English Department at the University of Zurich (November 29 - December 1, 2013) will focus on spaces in relation, addressing the importance of issues such as borders and crossings, utopia, travel and exile in the sphere of cultural production. It aims to explore ways in which spaces are represented and textually produced, as well as how boundaries between different spaces are traversed.

The conference is primarily aimed at scholars working in the field of literary and cultural studies. However, as we believe issues of spatiality can be fruitfully examined in an interdisciplinary framework we invite contributions from different segments of the academic community.