INTERDISCIPLINARY NINETEENTH-CENTURY STUDIES

 

University of Virginia

March 14-17, 2013

 

Leisure! Enjoyment,! Fun!

 

ÒIt was the best of times. It was the worst of times.Ó It was the age of pleasure. It was the age of atonement. It was any place in the nineteenth century. The scope is global, the approaches cross-disciplinary. What pleased the palate and tickled the nose? What roused the senses and deepened joy? What thrilled the body and inspired the mind? What did they do besides work? What diversions  (respectable or otherwise) did they seek? How did they think about the enjoyments they sought? These are some of the questions to address at INCS 2013, which is devoted to ÔLeisure, Enjoyment and Fun.Õ

 

Consider all forms for enjoyment desired, sought, anticipated, or suppressed. Of course, what constitutes enjoyment was widely contested ÔthenÕ as it is Ônow,Õ and just what the relation between enjoyment and happiness is has never been clear. The task we set ourselves this year is an examination of various pleasures, thoughts about fun and leisure, expressions or reports of enjoyment, and what these experiences tell us about the nineteenth century. Definitions of enjoyment are themselves numerous and contrasting, and we will keep the field broad so as to draw a wide catch. Enjoyment may be associated with entertainment, amusement, comfort, satisfaction, happiness, absence of pain, etc. We are interested in how enjoyment is experienced, what function it serves, how it can be legislated or monitored, if it can be exhausted, repeated, repelled, and whether individual enjoyment differs from enjoyment shared. 

 

Topics are not limited to, but might include:

 

Ambivalence towards . . .                                                                                       Weddings, parties, picnics

Theories of leisure                                                                                                    Spectacle

Enjoyment, guilt, atonement                                                                               Dance

License and restraint                                                                                              Cartoons, comic periodicals,

Sport, games, and races                                                                                          Sunday Papers, and other

Music, music halls, music boxes                                                                          Popular Reading

Festivals, street entertainments                                                                        Pets, animal fighting

Pleasure Gardens                                                                                                     Experimentation, invention

Illicit fun                                                                                                                       Gardens and Horticulture

Design, fashion, shopping                                                                                      Collecting

Gustatory delights                                                                                                    Museums, exhibitions

Trade in exotics                                                                                                          Training for fun

Hobbies                                                                                                                          Medical Tourism


Deadline: October 1, 2012. For individual papers, send a 250-word proposals; for panels, send individual 250-word proposals for each paper plus a 250-word panel description. Please include your name, affiliation, and e-mail address on your proposal. Send questions and proposals to Karen Chase (ksc3j@virginia.edu).  Website (under construction): http://incs2013.wordpress.com/