Конференција

It  is  only  natural  that  nature  in  its  multifarious  aspects  has  played  an  important  role  –  as inspiration, setting, or character – in linguistic expression and literary imagination ever since ancient  times.  

One of the early attempts to establish a relation between language and nature in the modern linguistics was done by Sapir in the first decade of the 20th century. Ecolinguistics as a linguistic discipline was established about eighty years later. In the following decades, the range and scope of the application of the concept of ecology within linguistics, starting from Haugen's ecology of language till modern researches, widened significantly.

Forms such as the pastoral and eclogue had retained a degree of popularity and/or value throughout centuries, and it was probably the post-First Industrial Revolution Romantic movement that permanently marked the significance of the natural world for humanity.  Subsequent decades and centuries have introduced a more scientific approach, thus also creating a variety of possibilities for a multi- and interdisciplinary study of nature.

Bearing in mind all the possible historical implications and methodological views, we would like to explore what changes and challenges nature –  as represented in literature and linguistics   –   faces   with   the   advance   of   the   Fourth   Industrial   Revolution, and   what hypothetical futures for the study of nature lie within and beyond the 21st century.

The topics we would like to address during the conference include – but are not limited to – the following:

−           contrastive language research of lexis in the fields of natural sciences

−           nature in discourses

−           linguistic landsacpes in urban and rural spaces

−           language teaching in nature and nature in language teaching

−           language for specific purpose at the faculties of natural sciences (biology, chemistry, physics, geography, geology, etc.)

−           ecolinguistics in the modern Europe and world

−           nature in utopian, dystopian and science fiction, popular culture, and within the framework of disaster studies

−           Romantic and Victorian views on nature and its representation in the arts and fiction of the eras

−           ecocriticism in literary theory and practice; environment in the context of creative industries

−           nature, the human body, robotics, biomedical engineering: narratives and critical practices

−           "natural" and "unnatural" in literature, fine arts, film

−           feminist perspectives on women’s appearance in literature, fine arts, film

−           nature and literature for children

Papers addressing aspects of nature which are not mentioned here are welcome as well.

Your proposals for a fifteen-minute presentation (followed by a short  discussion)  should be sent by e-mail to fsj.conference@alfa.edu.rs, by 15 July, 2020. The proposals should contain your name, affiliation and e-mail address, title of the presentation and an abstract of 200 to 250 words, together with 5 to 8 keywords. Proposals should be submitted in the language       in       which       the       presentation       will       be       delivered:       English       or Serbian.  Notifications  of acceptance  will  be  sent  by  1  August, 2020.

Conference fee is 50 EUR.

We sincerely look forward to welcoming you at the conference,

Faculty of Foreign Languages, Alfa BK University