Freitag, 01. November 2013, 09:00 - 19:00 iCal

Beyond the Subject

Campus AKH
Spitalgasse 1, 1090 Wien

Tagung, Konferenz, Kongress, Symposium


Weitere Termine

Donnerstag, 31. Oktober 2013, 18:00 - 22:00

Samstag, 02. November 2013, 09:00 - 19:00

Sonntag, 03. November 2013, 09:00 - 15:00

Beyond the Subject. New Developments in Life Writing

The conference would like to bridge the gap between historical forms of life writing, which have already undermined or questioned constructions of the cohesive subject, and the newest medial transformations in the genre of life writing. Alongside personal websites, blogs and social networks as new spaces in the autobiographical public sphere, increasingly the internet also offers a space for innovative forms of biographical representation. In so doing, virtual life writing goes beyond medial and narrative boundaries, in that it synthesizes image, sound and video, and develops new narrative possibilities in interaction with readers and users, that allow for pluralistic, fragmentary, non-linear conceptions of the subject beyond that of traditional conventions.

For many years theories of postmodernism and their critical engagement with the concept of the subject have also defined the field of life writing. Biographical and autobiographical writing was analysed from the perspective of deconstruction, post-colonialism and gender studies as a constructed performance, as an act of self-construction and construction by others in the context of various discursive settings. The aim of the conference is not to debate these theorems (that have, in any case, frequently been discussed over past decades) in extenso once more, but instead to focus on auto/biographical practices that consciously undermine the traditional Western concept of the subject and develop alternative models of life writing. At the same time the conference will offer a forum for both theoretical and practical approaches that go beyond postmodernism in their treatment of auto/biographical material.

IABA Europe was founded in October 2009, with the aim of encouraging European scholars to participate in the International Auto/Biography Association (IABA) by organizing biennial conferences, publishing an e-journal, and facilitating contacts via various means of communication. Following two successful conferences in Amsterdam and Tallinn the next IABA Europe biennial conference will be held 31 October-3 November 2013 in Vienna and hosted by the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for the History and Theory of Biography.


Veranstalter

Ludwig Boltzmann Institut für Geschichte und Theorie der Biographie


Kontakt

Cornelia Nalepka
Ludwig Boltzmann Institut für Geschichte und Theorie der Biographie
+43153410342
office@gtb.lbg.ac.at