Literature Squared: Metaliterary Reflections in Late Antiquity, 5th ISLALS, University of Salamanca, October 6–7, 2017

The fifth annual conference of the International Society for Late Antique Literary Studies (ISLALS) will convene at the University of Salamanca (Spain) on October 6–7, 2017, following the successful meetings in the USA (Brown 2013, Boston 2014, Bryn Mawr and Haverford 2016) and the UK (Oxford 2015).

Under the motto “Literature squared”, this year’s conference will cover a wide range of topics directly related to the general idea of literature speaking of, commenting on, or contrasting with, literature itself: from metaliterary prooemia and self-referential pieces/passages, to Christian and pagan exegesis (commentaries, metatexts, paratexts, allegorical re-readings, rhetorical treatises, hermeneutics, etc), via all kind of self-aware “derivative” genres (such as centos, epitomes, translations, paraphrases, etc). Intertextual dialogues will be also taken into consideration, provided that they focus on strictly (meta-)literary issues. Finally, special attention will be paid to the study of the late antique philosophical inquiries on the ideas of fictionality, language, representation and literature.

Communications will be 20 minutes long, with 10 additional minutes for questions and discussion. English and Spanish will be the accepted languages.

Both senior scholars and early career researchers (including PhD students) are welcome (and encouraged) to submit paper proposals.