We are pleased to share with you the call for papers for the first conference organised by the FoRS Centre of the Ca' Foscari University of Venice in collaboration with Politecnico di Torino (Department of Architecture and Design) and the Guild of St. George.

“the adaptation of materials for my story out of Joyce’s Scientific Dialogues and Manfred, is an extremely perfect type of the inter-woven temper of my mind, at the beginning of days just as much as at their end—which has always made foolish scientific readers doubt my books because there was love of beauty in them, and foolish æsthetic readers doubt my books because there was love of science in them”. Praeterita, 35: 56.

The first international conference organized by FoRS aims at gathering scholars working in a variety of different fields in order to foster multi- and interdisciplinary dialogue on Ruskin’s work and its legacies. Contributions should deal with the making of Ruskin’s texts and especially the way he adaptated a range of ‘heterogeneous’ materials to compose his books as types of “the inter-woven temper of his mind”. We would also welcome papers foregrounding revision, revisitation and re-use as key traits of his work and considering the way discourse is there reshaped and reframed over time with a view to adapting it to different audiences, intentions and emotional states, as well as to changing environmental and social conditions and their effects on human perception. The function played by different genres and visual media (engravings, drawings, daguerreotypes, etc.) in the construction of his texts might also be examined. Contributions on Ruskin’s legacies might fruitfully look at the ways thinkers, writers and artists have borrowed, reacted to, or rejected his views, places and ideas. They might include examination of the way Ruskin is presented in contemporary novels, films, cartoons etc.

Possible topics include, but are not necessarily limited to, the following:

  • Ruskin’s late revision of his early works (i.e. Stones of Venice, Modern Painters, etc)
  • Ruskin’s use of private material (e.g. diaries, letters and drawings) in the composition of his published works
  • Translation as adaptation
  • Ruskin’s adaptation of Classical mythology
  • Ruskin’s use and re-use of drawings (for study, in the preparation of illustrations, etc.)
  • Ruskin’s drawings and sketches of ruins, spolia, gaps/lacunae
  • Ruskin’s conception of landscape architecture as palimpsest
  • Environmental movements and associations inspired by Ruskin
  • Ruskin in 19th century fiction/non fiction
  • Responses to Ruskin’s theories in conservation and restoration science, art criticism, literature, travel writing etc.
  • 20th and 21st century reinterpretations of Ruskin’s drawings and sketches by architects and artists
  • Ruskin’s legacy in new and contemporary media

Proposals including title, 400-word abstract, and short bio should be sent to [email protected] and to [email protected] no later than June, 30th 2023.