Intellectuals
& the Great War
An International
Conference.
Ghent University, December 17-19, 2014
Ghent University announces a First World War conference,
scheduled to take place from 17-19 December 2014. The focus of this
international scholarly gathering is on the role of the intellectual in the
First World War. It aims to explore the ways in which intellectuals, working in
different fields and contexts, dealt with the strain, the shock and the
aftermath of WWI. We invite papers that look into the position of the
university during the war; the ways in which academia and the ‘monde
international des esprits’ dealt with the issue of action and commitment, and
what it meant for thinkers to be confronted with the physical aspects of war.
In the vast field of WWI studies, relatively little attention has been devoted
to the role of the intellectual. When this topic has been tackled the debate
rarely reached a transnational, multidisciplinary level. In bringing together
scholars from different academic and national backgrounds, the 2014 Ghent
conference seeks to do justice to the many faces of the intellectual during WWI
and wants to trace what the scholarly world now owes to them. We aim to address the strategies and
narratives of both the Entente and Central European intellectuals, of both
patriots and collaborators in occupied territories.
The Great War broke out at a time of educational
reform. Due to demographic changes and social reforms the early twentieth
century speeded up the democratization of higher education, which had slowly
begun in the second half of the nineteenth century. The fact that colleges
started to open their doors to men and, in some cases women, from different
social backgrounds changed the profile of the intellectual, from armchair
scholar to public figure and intrepid adventurer. The impact of the First World
War on this development cannot be overestimated. Those not out on the
battlefield had to confront the questions if and how to contribute and react.
In which ways did the events influence innovative developments, within the
fields of the sciences, philosophy, literature and the arts? In which ways was
the question how to make sense of the broken minds, the many maimed and dead
bodies dealt with across disciplines? What survives today of the insights or
techniques that question yielded? How do twenty-first-century intellectuals,
engage in writing and rewriting the history of 1914-1918, look back on the
attempts of our peers to mobilize their minds and bodies? More specifically,
the conference proposes four avenues, with four intellectual disciplines, for
discussion:
·
Science
The
positioning of the academic and scientific world at large during the First
World War is this section’s focus. We also welcome papers that seek to find an
answer to what it meant to be an academic at the time, both intellectually and practically.
We are interested in the legitimization of scientific and technological
progress made in service of the war effort. Finally, we also invite papers that
aim to understand the impact in terms of continuity and discontinuity of the
First World War and the Russian Revolution on the transnational circulation of
ideas and cultural goods. We encourage proposals that deal with the individual
life-story of scientists, engineers, social and human scientists, to open up to
a larger perspective.
·
Literature
In this
section we want to explore the impact of the Great War on early
twentieth-century as well contemporary literature. Possible topics include: WWI
as a period of literary innovation; the production and reception of patriotic
and non-pacifist texts; the image of war poets as “doomed youth”; generation
gaps in the war effort; the production of nationalist literature before,
during, and after the war; the decision for authors whether to swell the ranks
or to comment from the sideline; the ideal of heroism; the employment of women
in factories and other previously male domains; the formation of new social
norms in masculinity and femininity; war poetry by female writers and its exclusion
from anthologies until after 1980; nature and the countryside as a scene of war
and peace; the representation of trauma during and after the War Effort.
·
Philosophy
Paper
proposals that deal with any aspect of philosophy’s relationship to the First World
War and its reception among philosophers are welcome. Topics could include the
role of the war in the thought (and lives of) particular philosophers (e.g.
Wittgenstein, Otto Neurath, Carnap, Bergson, Russell, Reinach, Eucken, etc). We
are especially interested in papers that explore the role of the war in the
rise (and decline) of philosophical movements (analytic philosophy,
phenomenology, Lebensphilosophie, positivism)
and their broader relationship to larger intellectual and political movements. We
also welcome contributions that deal with the philosophy and morality of mass
war and that trace the ways in which current debate in ethics relates to
1914-1918, with the use of arms, with the philosophy of history, and with the
social responsibility, if any, of intellectuals.
·
Artists
and architects
Paper
proposals dealing with the following themes are welcomed: The Great War as
artistic motif; the war as catalyst for the development of new artistic
currents as well as for the rise of a new type of artist coping with industrial
modernity; the use of visual media in the war effort; the relation between the
arts and new war-related visual practices (such as aerial photography or
camouflage techniques); industrial warfare as a nihilist "Gesamtkunstwerk"
in relation to avant-garde currents such as Futurism and Dada; the development
of new international contacts and forms of collaboration among artists within
pacifist circles in exile; architectural conferences and education of
architects abroad; exiles returning to their home country; confrontation of
local and international ideas about rebuilding the country ; et cetera.
Proposals for 20-minute
papers are due via email (intellectualsandthegreatwar@gmail.com) by Feb 25, 2014, and should take the form
of a 1-page abstract accompanied by a short CV; in the case of complete panels,
proposals should consist of an abstract and short CV for every panelist
together with a short CV for the chair (if different).
The conference will be held from December 17-19, 2014 at Het Pand, Onderbergen
1, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. We welcome papers in English, French, German, and
Dutch.
