British Romanticism is part of European Romanticism and British writers drew inspiration from personal and cultural links with mainland Europe as well as the many forms of Continental travel. This international conference will explore the manifold relations between Britain and Europe during the Romantic period, taking advantage of recent work on transnational circulations and exchanges and a growing interest in comparative methodology. The conference will question stereotypes of Great Britain as insular by highlighting the island-nation’s European identity and its participation in a pan-European Romanticism shaped by transnational cultural dialogue and the cross-fertilization of art forms and disciplines. The aim is to uncover the channels and mechanisms by which Romantic ideas and influences were conveyed across national and disciplinary boundaries and to examine the role of individuals, communities and institutions in this complex transmission process. As well as directing attention to the often-overlooked international dimension of British Romanticism, the conference aims, by bringing together scholars working in Britain and on mainland Europe, to help develop the expanding research network on European Romanticism. Held at Monte Verità, an international conference centre in Ascona in the Swiss canton of Ticino which was formerly the site of a utopian community attracting intellectuals from across Europe, the conference will be divided between plenary lectures, invited panels, and open panel sessions. There will also be a public lecture on J.M.W. Turner and the Italian Lakes, as well as an excursion to Lake Como.
To fill the open panel sessions, we invite proposals for 20-minute papers on any aspect of the conference topic, including:
- European Romantic networks
- Romantic mediations and mediating figures
- Romantic salons, communities, and constellations
- Romantic disseminations and circulations
- Romantic theories of ‘Europe’
- European Romantic politics
- European Romantic aesthetics
- Romantic Europhobia and Europhilia
- Romantic exile and displacement
- British relations with Northern, Southern, and Eastern Romanticisms
- British Romanticism and Continental philosophy
- British Romanticism and Continental science
- British Romanticism and European travel
- Britain’s Four Nations and Europe
We encourage junior scholars from mainland Europe to apply, and in order to cut down on carbon emissions, urge attendees to travel by train.
