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Call for Papers Theme: Time and Temporality in the Asian and European Modernity Type: International Conference Institution: Department of Germanic Studies and Department of English Literatures, EFL University Location: Hyderabad (India) Date: 14.–15.2.2019 Deadline: 18.6.2018 __________________________________________________ The Department of Germanic Studies, and the Department of English Literatures, EFL University, Hyderabad, India are organising a conference on Time and Temporalities in academic collaboration with the University of Vechta on 14-15 February 2019. The inspiration for this conference comes from the experience of time in the textual and lived traditions of Europe and Asia, as well as the need for an interdisciplinary engagement with the vast multiplicity of temporal experiences: The conference aims to deconstruct the exotic impression around Time and Temporalities in Asia and Europe and to reexamine them in the modern context in different dimensions: Historic/naturalistic, scientific/societal, cultural/metaphysical, religious/secular. We need to examine, for example, how the astrological and calendrical temporality is received in the Asian cultures. One can discover how the same word denotes yesterday and tomorrow in some Indian languages (Kal-Hindi), how time called Kaal in India has deeper and broader implications, in addition to the cyclical yugas, and also how Kaal is but an integral part of the tempo in Indian music and dance which flows in time. The conference will shed light on how language attains more depths while (re)creating the tenses. We will deliberate how the cyclic nature of time can relate to the causal relation of karma in cyclical ideas of time, even when Time is viewed as linear in the awareness of those with Zoroastrian lineage – Zravanahe daregho khvadhatahe (measurable time), Zravanahe akarnahe (immesurable time). Given the multiculturality of lived experiences, we need to examine also the Buddhist concept of samaya, which influenced much of the Asian past and present with its atita, anaagata, paccuppanna (past, future or present – A.K. Coomaraswamy). The Buddhist perspective on the universe without perceptible limits in space or beginning in time has the dimension of suffering as part of it due to their impermanent (anitya) and insubstantial (anattaa) nature. Are the coordinates of its consciousness which precede space and time, still responsive to the modern experiences? The experience of modernity areas are said to be unfixed, and fragmentary. Such is also the debated Chinese concept of Time and Timeliness, shí (時), equated with seasonality or timeliness, as humanly lived time, different from shì (逝) which means ‘passing away’ (Mayul Im) The conference papers will compare and contrast temporalities interculturally. The shì (勢) as the potential of an epoch, which can make it a Supertime, is sought to be ever present (Chun-chieh Huang). This dimension helps us to ask, if the historical time revolves in cycles, but not repeating itself, and if it is different from linear and cyclic time. Yet another consciousness and lived tradition of time is offered by the Islamic notion of time revolving round three traditions: Islamic Kalam (Ilm al-Kalam) or theology, Islamic Philosophy and Islamic mysticism (Sufism). The metatemporal and metahistorical roots of events form the timeless background for a "descent" to this world of cause, effect, and chronological, linear time. These form the matrix within which what Islam calls Dahr (Allah is time) and Waqt as its human perspective form the Islamic concept of time. In Asia as well as in Europe, our everyday experience suggests that time is also independent of consciously perceived objects and their changeability, that they can be conceived and understood culturally very differently. The problem of the idea of time has in fact always been linked to the question of how far it will be "created" by a special intuition in human consciousness or given objectively notwithstanding this consciousness. In European history, the first systematic thoughts about time go back to Plato and Aristotle. For the latter, the concept of time was inseparably tied to change. "We measure not only the movement by means of time, but also the time by means of movement and this we can, because both determine each other". More recently however, philosophy is found proceeding from a distinction of absolute time determinations (past, present, future), as in Augustine, and from relative time determinations (earlier than, simultaneously, later than), as in Kant and the modern sciences. It only seems certain that temporality in Asia as well as in Europe can be perceived as a deeply humanizing reality, which we want to scrutinize in this conference which overarches disciplines and cultures. The above perspectives form a rich tradition which stands needs to be understood in the new light of a Pan-Asian consciousness immersed in modernity. They can offer insights and paradigms and epistemes with regard to Time and Temporalities – both in terms of concepts and as lived experience. We invite contributions from the field of literature, science, Arts, medicine, psychology, mythology and hope to gain a rich and nuanced perspective of Time and Timeliness through this multidisciplinary diversity. We welcome scholars from all across the world, especially Asia to present their views. Scholars of cultural communities and religious denominations are also encouraged to send their abstracts. Possible areas of interest include (but are not restricted to): - Conceptions of Time in Various Cultures eg., linear / cyclic, utopian / dystopian notions of time, astrological beliefs as cultural practice - Time, Consciousness and Experience: eg. subjective / objective, limited / limitless time, Mnemonics, altered perceptions of time, dreams, visions, hallucinations - Artistic / Literary Representations of Time: eg., Literature, Fine arts, sculpture, film and music, Chronotopes, Fictional time and autobiographical time, 'narrated time' and 'time of narration', innovations, combinations, permutations - Time in Language and Pedagogy: eg., tense structures in different languages and assumptions of time in the teaching of foreign languages - Time in the Age of Globalisation: eg., Hybrid notions of time and temporality, 24 hour News etc. - Time, Temporality and the Hard Sciences: eg., Interdisciplinary understanding of time, Geriatric and Medical care, Physics - Time and History: eg., textual memories and memorial texts called history, Museology - Religions, World Views and Temporality: eg., religious notions of time Kindly indicate the rubric under which you prefer your paper to be organised. The prospective presenters are requested to send their abstracts of not more than 200 words by 18th June, 2018 in German or English, with a bionote, keywords and preferred rubrics to: Dr. phil. Mathew John Kokkatt (English) Email: mathew.kokk...@gmail.com or Prof. Dr. Burghart Schmidt (German) Email: praesident@univechta.de The scientific committee of the conference will review the abstracts based on their uniqueness and strength of arguments. Presenters will be notified of the acceptance of their abstracts in the first week of July. Full papers should reach us by 31 st Dec., 2018. We will not be able to provide financial assistance to prospective presenters. However, we shall provide airport transfer, local travel and hospitality, sightseeing programs in the city of Hyderabad and its surrounding areas, as well as, of course, an extremely exciting scholarly exchange of ideas on the temporality of past, present and future times. Fees for participants (payable after acceptance of the Abstracts) Foreign participants: $100,- Participants from SAARC countries- : INR 4000,- Indian Scholars who need accommodation: INR 4000,- Indian scholars who do not need acccommodation INR 1500,- Research scholars who need accommodation: INR 1000,- Researchers belonging to EFL Univ.: INR 500,- Faculty members of the EFL Uni.: gratis Conference website: http://www.efluniversity.ac.in/openfile1.php?f=158 __________________________________________________ InterPhil List Administration: https://interphil.polylog.org InterPhil List Archive: https://www.mail-archive.com/interphil@list.polylog.org/ __________________________________________________
