The “Michel de Montaigne” Foundation and a group of English-Studies scholars from the University of Pisa, in collaboration with the Town Council of Bagni di Lucca and the “Istituto Storico Lucchese”, are organizing an International Conference to be held in September 2015. The event comes into line with a long series of annual conferences which, in the last few years, have highlighted themes and historical figures often connected with the field of Anglo-Italian cultural relations.
Here follow the titles of the previous conferences, testifying to an increasing interest in the dialogue which, especially in the second half of the nineteenth century, developed between Bagni di Lucca and British or European culture:

2008: A Homage to Elizabeth Barrett and Robert Browning
2008: Ouida in Exile: The Stubborn Pilgrim
2009: A Homage to Michel de Montaigne
2010: A Homage to Heinrich Heine
2010: The Trollopes: A Family of Writers in Tuscany
2011: Art, Literature, the Press, and Exile: Relationships Between

the United Kingdom and the Italian Risorgimento
2012: Anglo-Italian Cultural Relations in Nineteenth-Century Tuscany
2013: Possible and Impossible Worlds: Travelling as a Narrative Pattern
2014: An Aesthete at Bagni di Lucca: Ian Greenlees and His World

The proceedings of these conferences have been published in special numbers of the academic journal Anglistica Pisana.
In recent times, the “Michel de Montaigne” Foundation members have been involved in the cataloguing of the huge number of books which Ian Greenlees donated to the municipality of Bagni di Lucca, as well as in the sorting of his important mail archive. Wishing to keep on throwing light on this cultural patrimony, the Foundation – which has handled the Book Fund since 2008 – and the Conference organizing committee are proposing the following title for the 2015 event:
“Questions of Gender: The Feminine in Victorian Culture”.
This kind of theme offers a golden opportunity to analyze aspects, elements, and personalities related to Ian Greenlees’s rich textual archive, in the usually stimulating and lively atmosphere that has so far characterized the September meetings in Bagni di Lucca. If still in its early stages, our project has in fact already aroused interest among Italian and English academics.
Any queries from potential contributors who would like to have more detailed information about the Greenlees Archive and the Library catalogue are of course welcome.

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Call for Papers

Information queries and paper proposals must be sent to Marcello Cherubini, Chairman of the “Michel de Montaigne” Foundation, cherubini40@alice.it
and/or Professor Tony Bareham, terencebareham@gmail.com
Professor Mario Curreli m.curreli@angl.unipi.it

* Abstracts (max 300 words) and a CV (max 150 words) are to be sent by March 30, 2015.
* Paper presentations should not exceed a 25-minute span.
* In order to facilitate and promote cultural interchange, participants should also provide a résumé of their paper in Italian (if they are going to speak in English) or in English (if they are going to speak in Italian). The secretarial staff will be in charge of distributing handouts.
* Notification of acceptance will be given by April 15, 2015.

 

Those who wish to participate, whether as speakers or audience, should also fill in and send the enclosed Registration Form by June 15, 2015.
Certificates of attendance may be provided to students, teachers and paper contributors through the secretary’s office.
The registration fee amounts to €80,00 (eighty euros) per head, and includes: stationery costs, coffee- and tea-breaks throughout the Conference session; the dinner on Friday, the lunch and social dinner on Saturday; the guided tour of the English Cemetery and other sites of historical interest; a copy of the Tourist Guide Book to Bagni di Lucca.
Payment should be made by bank transfer to:

Fondazione Michel de Montaigne
Banco Popolare Società Cooperativa
Agenzia di Bagni di Lucca
Via Casalini,13 (Italy)
CASSA DI RISPARMIO DI LUCCA
AGENZIA DI BAGNI DI LUCCA (ITALY)
IBAN CODE: IT78N0503470093000000000008
BIC: BAPPIT21S10

Al Professor Marcello Cherubini

 

Contributors and participants may easily book a room at the hotels

which have an arrangement with the Foundation.

A list of these hotels and their rates will be available soon.