[ilds] CFP: OMG XXI

[James Gifford]

Dear all,

Below is the Call for Papers for On Miracle Ground XXI, to be held in 
Toulouse, France. Any updates to the CFP will appear online:

http://lawrencedurrell.org/wp_durrell/cfp-toulouse

All best,
James

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On Miracle Ground XXI – Call for Papers
“Mysticisms, Heresies & Heterotopias in the Works of Lawrence Durrell”

Toulouse, France, 28–30 May 2020

The International Lawrence Durrell Society, dedicated to promote the 
work of the British author Lawrence Durrell (1912–1990), invites 
proposals for papers to be presented at a May 2020 conference in 
Toulouse, France.

 From his early years as a writer, Durrell steeped himself in the works 
and ideas of Plato, Virgil, Ovid and other classical writers. He was 
equally interested in the worlds of the mystics as reflected in the 
works of Plotinus and the Kabbala, as well as the cultures of the 
ancient Egyptians and Copts. Not surprisingly, having settled in 1957 in 
the south of France where he lived until his death, Durrell’s interests 
came to include the ideas of the Gnostics and the Cathars and their 
alleged influence on the Order of the Knights Templar.

As Durrell developed his ideas from their foundations in the thinking of 
the ancient Egyptians, Greeks and Romans whose influence on his 
tetralogy, The Alexandria Quartet, is evident, so the ideas of Buddhism 
and the Gnostics permeate his later novel sequence, The Avignon Quintet.

Durrell’s works—travel books, fiction and poetry—reflect the ideas of 
the mystics and of all those prepared to challenge conventional thinking 
through the heresies that have permeated the Western world from its 
earliest recorded writings.

The various forms of Western and Eastern mysticism that underlie 
Durrell’s fiction and poetry question the pre-established, orthodox 
patterns of thought and undermine the oneness of truth, offering readers 
a heterotopia from which to re-examine the relationships between history 
and the art of writing.

Convening at the Université Toulouse – Jean Jaurès, a city whose culture 
reflects many of the themes and ideas found in Durrell’s writings, the 
Durrell Society seeks to promote discussion of twentieth-century writers 
who share Durrell’s ideas. Although papers on any aspect of Durrell’s 
writing are welcome, the conference organizers particularly encourage 
consideration of writers contemporary to Durrell including novelists, 
philosophers and thinkers with whom Durrell might have been sympathetic.

Topics for papers might include, but are not limited to the following:

-- The impact of the ideas of Deleuze and Guattari on critical views of 
Durrell;
-- The mystery of the ‘unknown’ as expounded by Yves Bonnefoy and as 
applied to the poetry of Durrell;
-- The relationship of Durrell to the wider canon of twentieth-century 
novelists and poets, such as D. H. Lawrence, Joseph Conrad, E. M. 
Forster, Robert Graves, David Gascoyne, etc.;
-- Influences on fiction and criticism of Foucault’s concept of heterotopia.

Early response deadline for submissions is 6th January 2020 (please 
indicate in this case if you need an official acceptance letter for 
administrative purposes).

Extended deadline for submissions is 2nd March 2020.

Registration will open by 10th February 2020. A direct link will be 
given to participants for online registration.

Send Proposals to Prof. Isabelle Keller-Privat
<isabelle.keller-privat at univ-tlse2.fr>