Forty years after the publication of La Condition Postmoderne by Jean-François Lyotard, the conference aims to promote a debate on the very word “postmodern” that, for almost three decades, has guided the interpretation of the political-economic structure of Western society, of its social dynamics and of his artistic and cultural production, and which today appears either radically rejected (Kirby 2009; Ferraris 2012) or historically reconceptualised (Jencks 2010; Faye 2012; Franzini 2018).

One issue, however, seems to unify the international and transdisciplinary debate fueled by the advent of the new millennium (Brooks, Toth 2007; Toth 2010; Nealon 2012; Rudrum, Stavris, 2015; Mordacci 2017): the end of postmodernism, considered a fact (tough with very different nuances), wished or forced as an ideological need (the exit from the postmodern and, particularly, from its philosophical and epistemic assumptions, is seen as an indispensable passage to face the challenges posed by contemporary society). At the same time, and inevitably so, the debate has been concerned both with weighing the (possible) legacy of postmodernism and with defining the essence of today’s society (Altermodernism, Digimodernism, Neomodernità, Ipermodernità, Post-Postmodernism, Remodernism etc.).

The conference, open to all disciplinary fields, intends to start from this recent debate to question the dynamics, the nature, the motivations, and the consequences of its crisis, as well as the paradoxical implication of its tormented epilogue: having kept the postmodern at the center of the debate on the contemporary age. Second, the conference aims to critically tackle the possible inheritance of postmodern thought and its cultural production, as well as the topicality of its theoretical production. Postmodernism does represent, from many points of view, the first attempt to react to a series of radical changes - globalization, the advent of a visual society, dematerialization, the technologization of experience etc. - that still define, in an intensified version, our society. Questioning the exit of Western society from postmodernity inevitably leads to wonder which “condition” we are experiencing today: the conference aims also to scrutinize the numerous “manifestos” - philosophical, ethical, and aesthetic - that, in recent years, have tried to develop new operational concepts for both the interpretation and the investigation of the postpostmodern condition.

 

Welcoming a variety of approaches and contributions, the conference will be structured around plenary and parallel sessions. Proposals can deal with some general theoretical themes or focus on their effects in relation to particular disciplinary areas and sectors or of the artistic and cultural production. Topics of interest for submission include, but are not limited to:

 

The historical and philosophical interpretation of the postmodern

The postmodern after the postmodern

The historicity and historicization of the postmodern style

Postmodernism as an international style

The relationship between postmodern theory and Visual Studies

Postmodern theory and media

Literary and artistic postmodernism

 

Deadlines and practicalities

We invite abstracts for 20-minute presentations.

Deadline for proposals: August 26, 2019. Abstracts should be between 200-250 words in length

and should be accompanied by a short CV.

Notification of acceptance: September 16, 2019.

The official languages of the conference are English, French and Italian.

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Authors should send their proposals to: thepostmodernconference@gmail.com 

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