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CLIC Day 2019: Robinson Crusoe Revisited: Literary and Intermedial Legacies of the 'First Novel in English'
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havhove@vub.be
https://clic.research.vub.be/en/9th-annual-clic-day-robinson-crusoe-revisited/
The next annual symposium of the Centre for Literary and Intermedial Crossings (CLIC) will take place on Friday 29th November 2019 and will revolve around the literary and intermedial legacies of and responses to Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe, to commemorate its publication exactly 300 years ago this year.
Three centuries after its appearance in print, Defoe’s fictional autobiography of the English mariner Robinson Crusoe survives in popular memory as the story of Crusoe’s shipwreck on an uninhabited island in the Americas, although the novel is as much about Crusoe’s spiritual growth as it is about his adventures at sea and in the New World. Robinson Crusoewas not only the very first novel in English, but also gave birth to a new subgenre, as it inspired authors from across the world to write adaptations in various languages. Contemporary ‘Robinsonades’ include works by J. M. Coetzee, Muriel Spark, Michel Tournier and Derek Walcott, to name but a few of the most notable writers. Since the late 20th century Crusoe’s colonial relationship with the inhabitants of the New World has been rewritten especially from postcolonial and migrant perspectives, whether by closely addressing Defoe’s text or even by simply shifting the narrative focus from Crusoe-like figures to (formerly) colonized characters.
The 9thCLIC-day aims to explore the many literary and intermedial legacies of Robinson Crusoe especially in the English, Dutch, French, German, Spanish or Italian language domains. As the first novel in English, it counts as a prototypical catalyst of genre development and canon diversification, while at the same time, as a canonized classic, it has become an icon of Europe’s literary establishment and intellectual traditions.
PROGRAMME
9:30 Welcome
10:00 Opening words – Inge Arteel (VUB, vice-chair CLIC & chair LIST)
Introduction – Elisabeth Bekers (VUB) 'The Legacies of Robinson Crusoe'
10:30 Panel 1
Daniel Acke (VUB)
‘Robinsonade als grenservaring in de moderne Franse letterkunde’
Andrea Penso (VUB)
‘Robinson Crusoe and the others: On the Italian reception of the English novel in late 18th century’
11.30 Coffee & tea Break
12:00 Keynote: Fouad Laroui (University of Amsterdam)
‘The First Novel in English and the First Novel tout court: Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe and Ibn Tufayl's Hayy Ibn Yaqzân’
13:00 Lunch break
14:30 Panel 2
Zhuyun Song (VUB)
‘A Chinese Island in the New Millennium: Reading Guo Xiaolu’s Village of Stone’
Helena Van Praet (VUB)
‘Genre Developments in the 21st Century: Contributions by Anne Carson’
15:30 Coffee & tea Break
16:00 Panel 3
Mathias Meert (VUB)
‘Literature, Authorship and Childhood in Friedrich Forster’s Robinson soll ni'cht sterben’
Emilie Sitzia (University of Maastricht)
‘Reading/Illustrating Robinson Crusoe: J. J. Grandville’s Illustration as Reception and Adaptation’
17:00 Artistic Keynote: Lisa Samuels (University of Auckland)
‘Transplace Poetics: Readings and Conversation with Hannah Van Hove (VUB)
18:00 Reception (Atrium, Ground Floor, Building I)
Participation is free of charge.
ORGANISATION: Prof. Dr. Elisabeth Bekers, Dr. Andrea Penso, Dr .Hannah Van Hove and Dra. Zhuyun Song
CONTACT: Havhove@vub.be