TWENTY-FIRST ANNUAL CONFERENCE
Society of Dix-Neuviémistes

Magic: Enchantment and Disenchantment / La Magie : enchantement et désenchantement

University of Oxford (Christ Church)
27 – 29 March 2023

Keynote speakers:
Paule Petitier (Université de Paris), ‘La Sorcière de Michelet: républicaine sans le savoir?’
Roger Pearson (University of Oxford), ‘Enchantment, Disenchantment, Re-enchantment: The Poet as Magus from Lamartine to Mallarmé’

(La version française suit)

In addition to papers with links to the 2023 conference theme, ‘Magic’, for which the regular Call for Papers can be consulted below, we invite submissions for individual papers or panels on:

Research Methodology and/or Theory:  five ten-minute papers and questions*

Pedagogy Roundtable: five ten-minute papers and discussion*

*work-in-progress papers warmly welcomed

200-word proposals (for 20-minute individual papers) and for panels on the topic of ‘Magic’ (see suggestions below) should be sent to sdn.proposals@yahoo.co.uk by 30 November 2022.

For specific queries, please contact the conference organiser, Dr Claire Moran, c.moran@qub.ac.uk.

• The power of the imagination
• Voyages: the magic of travel; the disenchantment of the world
• Magical worlds: utopias and dystopias
• Exoticism as Magic
• Magic money: get rich quick schemes, stock market bubbles and crashes
• Magic money: the ‘oncle d’Amérique’, the sudden inheritance and other forms
• of deus ex machina
• Romanticism and ‘l’école du désenchantement’ (Bénichou)
• Le merveilleux and le fantastique (Todorov)
• Folklore
• Miracles, transformations and epiphanies
• Enchantment, fantasy, faërie
• Belief and scepticism
• Rationalism and the irrational
• Mystery and the unexplained; Ghosts
• The occult and prophecy
• Spells, Mediums, turning tables, speaking with the dead
• Witches (Michelet) and Mages (Sâr Péladan…)
• Demons, devils, and dangerous fairies
• Science as disenchantment/science as enchantment
• The Magic of technology: la fée électricité and other innovations
• Shock and Surprises: the unexpected
• Poetry as incantation
• Literature/Poetry as alchemy
• The Writer/The Poet as alchemist; The Poet as demiurge
• Art and the uncanny; the artist as magician; the Pygmalion myth
• Fantastic illustrations and caricatures: Gustave Doré, Grandville…
• Rewritings of the Mille et une nuits and of Perrault’s Histoires ou contes du temps passé
• Rewritings of plots and motifs found in les contes de fées (Maupassant, Lorrain)
• The magic of performance
• Staging Magic: Acts of illusion and theatrical representations of magic
• The reception of the Gothic novel in France
• Hoffmann in France
• Power over nature and natural forces

En français

• L’imagination
• Le voyage, l’exotisme
• Les mondes de la fantaisie : l’utopie et la dystopie
• L’irréel
• Le romantisme and ‘l’école du désenchantement’ (Bénichou)
• Les contes de fées
• Le merveilleux and le fantastique (Todorov)
• Les spectres et les fantômes
• Les puissances cachées
• Les miracles, les transformations, les épiphanies
• L’enchantement, la fantaisie
• Le scepticisme
• Le rationnel/ l’irrationnel
• Le mystère, l’incroyable, l’occulte
• Les sorts / la sorcellerie
• Les sorcières (Michelet) et les mages (Sâr Péladan…)
• Les démons
• La science comme désenchantement/ enchantement
• La magie de la technologie: la fée électricité….
• L’inattendu ; L’illusion
• La poésie, la littérature comme alchimie
• L’art de la Fantastique: Gustave Doré, James Ensor, Rops, Redon, Grandville…
• Briser le quatrième mur : le théâtre
• Hoffmann et son influence
• Les forces de la nature

Please register, via this form, by 3 March 2023:

Name *

First

Last

Email *

Institutional affiliation (if any) *

Are you an early-career researcher? *YesNo

Early-career researchers (ECRs) will normally be understood to mean postgraduates and post-doctoral researchers within 3 years of their PhD/DPhil viva, or within 7 years if they have not yet been appointed to a permanent full-time academic post.

Have you already taken out SDN membership for 2023? *YesNo

Please note that all conference speakers and attendees must be members of the Society. Membership is not included in the conference rate and can be added below. For further information, please see: https://uksdn.co.uk/membership.

Please tick the applicable boxes. Delegates who select the full conference package do not need to tick 'Day 1', 'Dinner in Hall on Day 1', 'Day 2', 'Conference Banquet Dinner' and 'Day 3' separately. *

• Full conference package, inc. lunches on 27th and 28th, dinner on 27th and Conference Banquet on 28th – £190/£155 ECR
• Day 1 (27th March, inc. buffet lunch in Hall and afternoon coffee/tea) – £50/£35 ECR
• Dinner in Hall on Day 1 (27th March) – £33
• Day 2 (28th March, inc. buffet lunch in Hall and afternoon coffee/tea) – £50/£35 ECR
• Conference Banquet Dinner on 28th March – £60/£55 ECR
• Day 3 (29th March, inc. morning coffee/tea – own arrangements for lunch) – free to all members
• SDN membership, if not already a member – £40/£25 ECR
• Optional annual membership supplement to take out membership of our French sister society, the Société des Études Romantiques et Dix-Neuviémistes (SERD) – £10

Please note that the full conference package does not include membership or accommodation. The pre-Banquet Dinner wine reception and a visiting magician are offered to conference participants with thanks to the Christ Church Research Centre.

Dietary requirements *

Please indicate any special dietary requirements, particularly allergies. Otherwise, please indicate ‘none’.

Accommodation *

• No accommodation required (staying elsewhere)
• Single non-ensuite bedroom on 27th March (limited number available) – £79/£49 PG
• Single ensuite bedroom on 27th March – £96/£66 PG
• Single non-ensuite bedroom on 28th March (limited number available)- £79/£49 PG
• Single ensuite bedroom on 28th March – £96/£66 PG
• Twin/double ensuite bedroom on 27th March – £152/£92 if both PGs
• Twin/double ensuite bedroom on 28th March – £152/£92 if both PGs

Prices include breakfast in Hall. Christ Church may be able to accommodate rooms on the 26th and/or 29th for delegates staying in Oxford on these nights, but will be unable to confirm this until the end of February/early March. If you need confirmation now (to be able to book flights, for example), we suggest you book a room at a nearby hotel/guest house that offers a full refund and then contact the Christ Church Conference Office directly at conferenceoffice@chch.ox.ac.uk from 26th February. Please note that the cost for these nights will not include the PG subsidy of £30.

Access requirements *

Please indicate any access requirements. Otherwise, please indicate ‘none’.

Total in GBP (£) *

Payment method *

• Bank transfer
• PayPal

Upon submitting this form, you will receive an email with details of how to pay your conference fee. Please check your junk/spam folder if it doesn’t appear in your inbox. Our preferred mode of payment is bank transfer for UK-based members, and PayPal for international members.

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