CONFERENCE ON NARRATIVE: ART AND MIND
LOCATION: CUMBERLAND LODGE, WINDSOR GREAT PARK
DATES: FRIDAY MAY 30 - SUNDAY JUNE 1, 2003
Speakers include:
Simon Blackburn (Philosophy, Cambridge)
Noel Caroll (Philosophy, Wisconsin)
Greg Currie (Philosophy, Nottingham)
Tamar Szabo Gendler (Philosophy, Syracuse)
Peter Goldie (Philosophy, KCL)
Paul Harris (Graduate School of Education, Harvard)
Jon Jureidini (Child Psychiatry, University of Adelaide)
Jerrold Levinson (Philosophy, Maryland) Steven Mithen (Archaeology, Reading)
Keith Oatley (Psychology, Toronto) Gerard O'Brien (Philosophy, Adelaide)
Barbara Tversky (Psychology, Stanford)
An interdisciplinary conference designed to bring together leading figures
from philosophy and psychology to address fundamental questions about the
connections between narrative as an explanatory tool in the arts, and in
development and psychopathology.
· What can artistic theories of narrative tell us that would be useful in
assessing the psychological function of narrative?
· Can artistic theories of narrative themselves be assessed against
evidence from controlled psychological experiments?
· Are the elaboration of narratives and an awareness of narrative concepts
important features of psycho-social development.
· Can an impoverished, excessive or inappropriate narrative sense lead to
psychological disorder?
Traditionally, theories of narrative, within the arts as well as within
psychological theorizing, have drawn on Freudian and other psychodynamic
conceptions. These theories are often criticised for their a priori
approach to matters that are really empirical. More recently, cognitive
approaches to the arts have emphasised the requirement that theorising in
this area be informed by well-tested psychological theories; yet narrative
remains a theoretical tool largely uninfluenced by systematic experimental
work. The currently available body of experimental work on narrative
comprehension and on the reader/viewer's imagined location within the
space-time of the work is itself subject to various interpretations.
The conference will provide a much-needed opportunity for scholars in
philosophy and psychology to develop an approach to narrative that is
theoretically rich yet properly informed by empirical work.
Registration: £50. Bursaries are available for post graduate students, to
cover half of
registration, accommodation and travel.
Registration forms are available at:
<http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/philosophy/conference.htm>http://www.nottingham
.ac.
uk/philosophy/conference.htm
Or write to:
Andrea Hill
Dept of Philosophy
University of Nottingham
NG7 2RD
UK