Neobaroque and/in the Contemporary World

International Conference Neobaroque and/in the Contemporary World  –  May 8-9

The Neobaroque Now: Exploring its Enduring Relevance in the 21st Century

The term “baroque,” famously associated with the captivating irregularity of the pearl, continues to elude precise definition, sparking ongoing debate and eliciting a range of responses within contemporary cultural discourse. The concept of the “neobaroque” not only inherits the polycentric semantics of the baroque but also presents additional complexities due to the multiple meanings attached to the prefix “neo.” This conference seeks to explore these intricate layers of meaning, examining the diverse relationships between history, aesthetics, and politics in conceptualizations of the baroque’s return in (European, Western, and global) Modernity. It will explore the multiple forms of the New World baroque and the variously conceived neobaroques – some recently discovered and rehabilitated, others presently emerging – offering diverse interpretations of possible futures for our planet. This wealth of ideas promises to generate stimulating and highly productive discussions. The conference organizers pose the central question: “What use is the neobaroque today?” This will encourage exploration of recent reworkings of the concept and its intersections with prominent contemporary theoretical perspectives, such as the Anthropocene, the Affective Turn, the Non-human Turn, and the Forensic Turn. The conference adopts a broad definition of the neobaroque as a sensibility, a political aesthetic, an episteme, and a research paradigm, recognizing its transhistorical and transgeographical character. This conference serves as a platform for interdisciplinary inquiry. It welcomes proposals from a wide range of disciplines, including, but not limited to: history, theory and anthropology of literature, comparative studies, rhetoric and aesthetics, art history, media and film studies, theory and history of architecture, historiography, history of science, and musicology. The conference is particularly interested in exploring how variously conceived neobaroques embody “minor” or “major” strategies, as conceptualized by Deleuze and Guattari. It will examine how the “minor” neobaroque, with its hybrid, polyphonic, politically engaged, transmodal, and transdisciplinary poetics, gives voice to the “baroque reason” of the Other, a concept introduced by Christine Buci-Glucksman. The conference encourages explorations of how this “minor” expression resonates with the voices and silences of women, children, LGBTQ+ communities, those subject to racial, gender, and class discrimination, animals, and even objects. Conversely, it also invites analyses of how the “major” strategy tends to conserve the status quo and is often aligned with spectacle as a means of legitimizing power. The history of the neobaroque(s) as a conception, the forms in which it has found expression, and its contemporary relevance provide an excellent point of departure for examining the range of topics concerned with both the past and the future of the globality to which the historical baroque gave rise.

Programme

The conference has invited papers and presentations that address the continuous relevance of the neobaroque sensibility in the contemporary world. Multiple perspectives are welcome, including interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches. It encourages submissions in literary studies, cultural and political studies, media studies, arts, and architecture. See the full programme

Conference Format and Publication:

This conference is planned as an in-person event. The organizers intend to publish selected papers in an edited collection with a leading European academic publisher.

Registration:

Passive participation is free of charge, however you have to register in the form below:

Registration Form

You can find all the information here:

Conference Neobaroque and/in the Contemporary World