EZRA POUND INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
SALAMANCA 2019
CALL FOR PAPER PROPOSALS
28th Ezra Pound International Conference
University of Salamanca
Salamanca, Spain
25-29 June 2019
Ezra Pound and the Spanish World
“¿Cantan aún los gallos del Cidal amanecer en Medinaceli?”
(“Do the roosters still crow at dawn in Medinaceli?”)
The 28th Ezra Pound International Conference will be held from Tuesday, 25 June to Saturday, 29 June 2019 at the University of Salamanca, Spain. Established in 1218, Europe’s fourth oldest university is located in heart of Western Spain. For the 28th EPIC, in addition to four days of sessions, panels, and plenary talks, other events being planned include walking tours of the old city, a visit to the university’s rare book library, a musical evening, and poetry readings. An optional post-conference overnight excursion will be offered to Burgos to see its stunning cathedral, the famous chests of sand from El Cid, and several monasteries, followed by a day in Madrid for tours of Lope de Vega’s house and the Prado, among other highlights. From Madrid, participants can then visit other Spanish cities or depart. Spain was a first in many ways in Pound’s life. Having learned Spanish in college, he initially came here in 1906 to research his intended thesis on Spanish playwright Lope de Vega, about whom Pound wrote in The Spirit of Romance, “He is not a man, he is a literature.” He later invoked Spanish culture often in The Cantos, spanning its history from El cantar de mio Cid to Juan Ramón Jiménez. For Pound, El Cid was the epic of epics, because unlike other medieval epics it is composed in a realistic style based on historical fact. Pound’s enthusiasm for El Cid took him in 1906 to Burgos, whose cathedral he rated above Notre Dame. From there he followed El Cid’s trail across Soria to the medieval town of Medinaceli (“celestial city,” in Arabic) on the border of Christian and Moorish Spain, where the medieval hero had sought refuge in exile. In The Cantos, Pound gave his epic;a Spanish frame by using Spanish in the titles of three of its nine sections: The Jefferson Nuevo Mundo Cantos (31-41), Rock Drill de los Cantares (85-95), and Thrones de los Cantares (96-109). In fact, Spain was the first country to honor Pound with a monument. On 15 May 1973 while the seventy-eight-year-old Olga Rudge looked on as a special guest, a stone plaque was placed beneath an ancient tree in Medinaceli, in honor of Pound’s appreciation for what he considered the most beautiful line of Spanish poetry: “aún cantan los gallos al amanecer en Medinaceli.” As significant as the impact of Spanish culture was on Pound, so is his own legacy in Spain, where he exerted a major influence on the Poetas Novisimos (‘The Newest Ones’), a group of experimental poets in the 1970s also known as the Venetians, many of whom had sought Pound in Venice to pay homage, including José María Álvarez, Félix de Asúa, Perrre Gimferrer, Vicente Molina Foix, Leopoldo María Panero, Jaime Siles, and Antonio Colinas.
The EPIC committee invites proposals for papers addressing the conference theme or any other pertinent Poundian topic. The committee especially encourages proposals on the Spanish dimension of Pound’s work, including that related to Spanish history, literature, art, music, politics, and philosophy, as well as on Pound’s impact on Spanish and Hispanic writers. Proposals may interpret the conference theme in specific or broad terms, relating to Pound and his poetry, prose, translations, textual analysis, biography, comparative studies, literary or political influence, letters, or historical matters. Close readings of poems, essays, and Cantos, as well as comparative readings of the works of Spanish Modernists are also welcome. Proposals from postgraduate and younger scholars are particularly encouraged. Full panel proposals are also welcome. As always, the committee will gladly consider proposals on all aspects of Pound.
DEADLINE FOR PROPOSALS: October 19, 2018
If you are interested in giving a paper, please send a short proposal (250-400 words) (as Word Attachment or as email text). Please include your paper title, name(s) and affiliation(s), mailing address, and email address on the proposal. Presentations should be limited to 20 minutes delivery time (Max, 2500 words). Send proposals by email to John Gery:
If you wish not to propose a paper but wish to receive Registration Information and Conference Details, please contact the Secretary John Gery.