DEPARTMENT OF CULTURAL STUDIES
NICOLAUS COPERNICUS UNIVERSITY
in TORUŃ
and
FOUNDATION ‘THE VERTICAL DIMENSION OF CULTURE’
have got the pleasure to invite scholars of various humanistic fields
TO INTERNATIONAL AND INTERDISCIPLINARY SCIENTIFIC CONFERENCE
JESUIT CULTURE BETWEEN THE ARTS
which will take place
6-7 of April, 2016
in Toruń
From the very beginning of its activity the Jesuit Order stood out special charism of availability to the pope – availability in all possible areas of life, including the toughest and most ambitious.
Such precisely the areas developed by the Order of the Knights of Christ were – and still are – scientific work and artistic activities (W. Rehg, S.J., Do Jesuit Scholarly Endeavors Cohere? Self-Reckoning and the Postmodern Challenge). Both of these activities of Jesuits always pursued a broad spectrum of culture, due to the strong commitment of the Order in missionary work around the world, especially in the Far East and Latin America. Therefore, the scientific works on Jesuit art, especially in the first period of their activity (to dissolution in 1773) exhibit often the exciting topic of their global approach to the art in the days before globalization; their outstanding contribution to the promotion of Latin culture around the world, but also to the skillful development of cooperation between various cultures and their great openness to the multicultural world – including the world of art/arts – that was barely opening up to the inhabitants of Europe in those days (G. A. Bailey, Art on the Jesuit Missions in Asia and Latin America, 1542-1773; The Jesuits: Cultures, Sciences, and the Arts, 1540-1773; E. Levy, Propaganda and the Jesuit Baroque; J. Ch. Smith, Jesuits and the Art of the Early Catholic Reformation in Germany).
Conference organized by us is specifically devoted to the arts cultivated by the Jesuits. They developed a high level of their own trend of practicing visual arts, music, literature and also broadly defined literature, including the rhetorical and political writing. At the same time they always remained under the influence of the stylistic directions and trends that currently prevailed in Europe, giving however their art distinctive and special feature, resulting, among other things, from the rich cultural experience and impressive scientific work of the Order.
We invite you to submit papers on topics involving aforementioned Jesuit arts, considered as isolated phenomenon or in terms of comparatives. In particular we are interested in topics showing the relationship between spiritual culture and specificity of Jesuit spirituality and their artistic heritage, also in their contemporary artistic activities.
Please send proposals in the following areas:
- Jesuit art and the culture of the Far East: inspiration, contexts, themes,
- Jesuit art and the culture of the Americas: inspiration, contexts, themes,
- travel experience in the art of Jesuit; Jesuit ‘geography of knowledge’,
- Jesuit art between East and West,
- art as a tool for missionary of Jesuits,
- Jesuit culture and its reflection in the visual arts,
- Jesuit culture and spirituality and tradition of the early rhetoric,
- Jesuit theater and Jesuit opera as across-cultural phenomenon,
- Jesuit theory and aesthetic of music,
- interpretation of the concept of taste in the Jesuit theories of art,
- Jesuit literature,
- Jesuit architecture,
- philosophical and theological background of Jesuit art,
- Jesuit art of yesterday and today: the contemporary significance of art in the spiritual life of the Jesuit Order.
We invite all humanists interested in listed above and similar topics, specialists of different fields, among others specialists in: theory of art, literature, philology, musicology, history and history of art, cultural studies, anthropology, philosophy, theology, etc.
The official language of the conference is English. It is possible to deliver papers also in Polish, but the authors are kindly requested to provide translation in English. We intend to publish the monograph dedicated to this subject after conference.
Presentations should take no more than 20 minutes. We ask for sending abstracts, together with registration form. Please send all those information on the address jesuit.culture2016@gmail.com until 15th of December, 2015.
The information about being admitted you will receive till the day 31st of December, 2015. Till this time you will also receive the data necessary to pay conference fee.
The fee is 120 € and covers: costs of conference materials, coffee service, banquet, and publication of articles admitted to publishing.
More details after the 31st of December. Please do not hesitate to send any of your questions to the following address: jesuit.culture2016@gmail.com
Conference organizing committee:
dr Małgorzata Lisecka – chair of the conference
dr Joanna Bielska-Krawczyk
dr Ewa Dryglas-Komorowska – secretary of the conference
dr Anna Żurawska
