CALL FOR PAPERS: (Un)natural Stevenson Wild Transgressions across Literature, Ecology, Science and Gender, Ca’ Foscari – University of Venice 11-12 May 2026 (aula Baratto)
Organizers: Lucio De Capitani & Alessandro Cabiati This conference aims to explore the concept of nature/natural in Robert Louis Stevenson’s work, broadly understood as to intersect with several of Stevenson’s intellectual, ethical and artistic engagements: reflections on literary criticism/style, conceptions of gender and sexuality, visions of science, anthropological and psychological notions of the human, and ecological/ecocritical considerations. It suggests the possibility that the Stevensonian ‘natural’ may also, as a matter of course, evoke its other – the ‘unnatural’ – either to uphold the boundary between the two or, perhaps more intriguingly, to cross it. Connected to this, the conference aims to investigate Stevenson both as a writer of dichotomies/dualisms and of their wild transgressions. Topics include but are not limited to: Proposals (200-300 words) for twenty-minute papers should be sent to the organisers by November 30, 2025 (alessandro.cabiati@unive.it, lucio.decapitani@unive.it). Please include your email address, institutional affiliation, and a short bionote (100 words) Please find the FULL TEXT of the call for papers at: https://www.cfplist.com/CFP/45365