PALA 2016
In/Authentic Styles: Language, Discourse and Contexts
CALL FOR PAPERS
The 2016 Conference of the Poetics And Linguistics Association will be held at the
University of Cagliari (Italy) from 27th to 30th July 2016. Further information is available on
the Conference website at the address http://convegni.unica.it/pala2016.
We are honoured to announce that the following scholars have agreed to deliver a
plenary lecture at the Conference:
Prof. Alwin Fill – University of Graz
Prof. Luisanna Fodde – University of Cagliari
Prof. Donald E. Hardy – University of Nevada, Reno
Prof. Giovanni Iamartino – University of Milan
Prof. Sara Mills – Sheffield Hallam University
Prof. Elena Semino – Lancaster University
The title and general theme of the Conference is In/Authentic Styles: Language,
Discourse and Contexts.
The Conference committee particularly welcomes abstracts that address the notion of
authenticity in literary and non-literary texts and text-types. In general terms, an entity can
be defined as authentic when it is considered to be real, actual, genuine, original, first-hand,
or, in literary and artistic terms, unquestionably proceeding from its stated source, author,
painter, etc. Given this definition, the discourse of authenticity makes frequent use of the
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term ‘representation’: a description or reproduction of facts or situations aiming at realism
and, most often, an artistic, cultural or artificial construction intended to convey a particular
view and to influence the addressees’ opinions or actions.
Authenticity — and its antonym ‘inauthenticity’ — can therefore have various meanings:
the clearly recognisable style of an author conveying their identity; the stylistic features and
devices characterising a text-type or period; an (apparently) essential, unrefined,
unsophisticated style resulting in a text communicating clear, transparent and
comprehensible messages and representing entities in an (apparently again) unbiased way;
an addresser textually constructing solidarity, cooperation and friendliness towards their
addressees by means of, for instance, informal everyday language or socio-pragmatic
strategies; the theme of getting back to one’s cultural roots and representing one’s ethnic,
social and even artistic identity; linguistic, discursive and artistic representation as an act of
persuading, manipulating and expressing ideology.
We will be interested in any abstracts that address these and similar issues, but also that
explore broader areas of stylistics and, in particular, its relationships to other disciplines such
as pragmatics, semantics, narratology, literary studies, cultural studies, language teaching,
translation and others.
We invite proposals for 20-minute presentations (followed by 10 minutes for discussion).
All Conference rooms have a computer, data projector and screen. Please send an abstract
of no more than 250 words to the Conference email address: [email protected].
Abstracts should be sent as email attachments in .doc, .docx or .rtf format and should be
named ‘Surname_Abstract_PALA 2016’. They should contain the following structural
elements: (a) your full name, academic position, academic affiliation, email address, postal
address, (b) a recognisable thesis/statement or research question, (c) an explanation of the
methodology, (d) a short reference to emerging results (if applicable), (e) a list of keywords,
(f) a short list of key references (max. 5).
The deadline for submission of abstracts is 31st January 2016. Notifications of acceptance
will be sent by 28th February 2016.
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