We cordially invite to participate in the International, Interdisciplinary Conference dedicated to the conception of the (ab)normal relating to the issues that are (un)typical, (non)normative, different, distinct in literature, language, art, culture, and society. The Conference will take place 15th-16th October 2020 in Poznań.
Our meeting will be the next stage of research cooperation between the Institute of Croatian Studies, the Philosophical Faculty at University in Zagreb, the Institute of Slavonic Philology and the Faculty of Polish and Classical Philology at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań. In the framework of previous cooperation two important events were organized, i.e. the conference entitled “Transmissions of Croatian Studies“ (Poznań 2013) and the conference dedicated to the relations between art and democracy (Zagreb 2017).
Like many other concepts we use today, rarely wondering about their origin and original purpose, the concept of abnormality is the product of 19th-century epistemology and culture. Initially associated with medicine it was introduced as a reverse of the healthy body and psyche, but soon came into widespread public use. The abnormal began to characterize any deviation from those forms of life, behaviours and values that were considered normal or normed. The construction of the abnormal thus began to serve as a mechanism of social discipline and hygiene in the broadest sense; a way of excluding, repairing and even eliminating what was, in one way or another, proclaimed as deviant, atavistic or degenerate. With this scientific conference we want to encourage a discussion about the consequences of using the concept of abnormality, both in the historical perspective and in the present. We hope that researchers from different disciplinary fields (literary studies, linguistics, cultural studies, anthropology, political science, sociology, visual and performance studies, philosophy, history, ethnography, etc.) will investigate ways in which that what is not normal and normed is designed, marked out and used. Also, we hope they will analyse ethical, political, aesthetic and cognitive implications of using the concept of abnormality while constructing a perverted, deviant, socially dangerous, retrograde, hostile, profane or morbid bodies, events, language utterances or conducts. In other words, we are interested in the phenomena and the activities that occur on the unstable border between the norm and the non-normative, the normal and the abnormal, as well as the ways we relate to them and treat them. And finally, changes in the attitude towards norm needs to be considered – when do norms seem to be repressive, when do we need need them as regulators of our collective life and how and why does this shift in perspective take place.
We hope to meet you in Poznań.
Submission forms and short abstracts (up to 1000 characters) please send to address:
skup-ne-normalno@wp.pl, until the 1st March 2020
The language of the conference is Polish, Croatian, other Slavonic Languages and English.
Conference fee 350 Polish Zloty
Organizing Committee:
Izv. prof. dr. sc. Tomislav Brlek
Doc. dr. sc. Đurđica Čilić Škeljo
Prof. dr hab. Tomasz Mizerkiewicz
Prof. UAM dr hab. Krystyna Pieniążek-Marković
Prof. dr. sc. Tvrtko Vuković
Dr Magdalena Baer
Dr Ewa Szperlik
