7th International Conference of Neo-latin Cultures 'Towards the East'

Wroclaw, a city that symbolises the synthesis of East and West, will host the 7th International Conference of Neo-Latin Cultures, whose theme this year turns towards the East. Benjamin Disraeli has one of his characters in Tancred, or the New Crusade (1847) say: 'Even Napoleon regretted that he had ever re-crossed the Mediterranean. The East is a career', a sentence in the exergue to Edward Said's Orientalism (1976) whose work underlines how the West has often constructed the Eastern 'Other' as a mirror of its own fears and ambitions. Starting from this provocation, we propose to explore - in an interdisciplinary and diachronic perspective - the intertwining between Neo-Latin cultures and the Orient, understood both as a geographical space and as a cultural metaphor. We therefore invite scholars and researchers to explore the dynamic interaction between Neo-Latin cultures and languages and the East, with a particular focus on the relations of cultural transfer between Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean basin. The conference aims to bring to light interdisciplinary links: historical, literary, linguistic and contemporary society that unite the different areas of the planet, promoting a dialogue on mutual influences, perceptions and exchanges.

Themes and Topics
Contributions from a variety of disciplines are encouraged, including, but not limited to:

• Historical connections: trade routes (e.g. the Silk Road, Venetian-Ottoman exchanges), Byzantine/Ottoman influences, Crusades and diaspora communities.
• Literary and artistic relations: Oriental themes in Romance literature, Orientalism in Mediterranean art and intercultural narratives.
• Text migrations: translations, adaptations and rewritings (e.g. the Thousand and One Nights in Romance literature).
• Languages in Transit: Language Loans, Language Contact Zones and the Role of Latin, Romanian and Franconian Languages as Bridges between East and West
• Language teaching: history and methods of teaching Neo-Latin and Oriental languages as a foreign language
• Perceptions and identities: stereotypes, Mediterranean visions of Eastern Europe and post-colonial/decolonial critiques.
• Religious interactions: pilgrimage routes, Catholic-Orthodox dynamics and religious syncretisms, the chronicles of the Crusades (Gesta Francorum, Historia rerum in partibus transmarinis gestarum, Itinerarium Regis Ricardi).
• Imaginary geographies: Orientalisms, exoticisms and counter-narratives (from Said to Todorova, Imagining the Balkans).
• Contemporary orientations: Europe and the new cultural 'silk routes'.

Proposals for reflection
The conference invites discussion with emblematic figures such as:

• Niccolò de' Conti, and the reports to Pope Eugene IV of his travels in India transcribed by Poggio Bracciolini in De varietate fortunae (1445)
• Marco Polo, whose The Million (1298) turned Asia into a 'text to be deciphered', mixing wonder and invention, to the point of inspiring Italo Calvino in writing Invisible Cities (1972).
• Giovanni da Pian del Carpine, the first Western ambassador to the Mongol court (1245-47), whose reports reveal the medieval dismay in the face of the 'savage Horde'.
• Matteo Ricci, Jesuit and sinologist, whose description, written between 1609 and 1610, was for centuries the Western reference text for learning about China.
• The legend of Priest John, a medieval myth of a Christian kingdom in the East that inspired explorers and mystics, mirrors a West in search of imaginary allies.

Submission Guidelines

• Abstracts (250-300 words) can be submitted in Italian or other Romance languages, in Polish or in English
• Include your institutional affiliation.
• Deadline for submission: 5/05/2025
• Send to: info@dante.uni.wroc.pl.

Important dates

• Deadline for submission of abstracts: 5/05/2025
• Notification of acceptance: 15/05/2025
• Conference: 23-25/06/2025
• Deadline for submitting the full contribution for the proceedings: February 2026

Participation fee 40 euro / 170 złoty

Publication
The selected articles will be published in a volume edited by Gianluca Olcese, Sonia Maura Barillari and Ewa Tichoniuk-Wawrowicz.

Organisers
Gianluca Olcese, Sonia Maura Barillari, Błażej Stanisławski, Ewa Tichoniuk-Wawrowicz

Contact
For information: gianluca.olcese@uwr.edu.pl
Conference website:
www.dante.uni.wroc.pl/it/notizie/vii-convegno-internazionale-di-culture-neolatine-verso-oriente