CCL Spectacular Orientalism Conference programme

The CCL is pleased to announce the Programme of the Conference Spectacular Orientalism in Early Modern Europe (1529-1683).

The conference will be held on the afternoons of 8 and 9 June 2022:

Day One: The Public Stage (8 June 2022, 1:45-5.00pm, BST)

Day Two: Festivals (9 June 2022, 2.00-5.00pm, BST)

These two half-days of talks and discussion will explore new perspectives on the representation of the Orient in early modern European art and performance between 1529 and 1683, the period framed by the two sieges of Vienna by Ottoman armies.

The conference will examine different settings in which the Orient was imagined and talked about. In particular it will interrogate various types of public display common in early modern societies, in which the self-projection of power and identity was often interwoven with the spectacle of the Other: courtly and public festivals, civic ceremonies and rituals, etc.

It will also consider staged productions, notably operas and ballets, whose multisensorial character added to the inherent orientalist tendency towards display, while heightening the attraction of the exotic for their audiences.

Find out more about the event, read the abstracts, and book to attend (registration is free but it is required to receive the link to attend).

Please check the programme page again in case of last-minute amendments.

The Conference is organised by the CCL in collaboration with the Society for European Festivals Research.