Congrès: 11th conference of the European Society for the Study of English, Boğaziçi University, Instanbul, Turkey — September 4-8, 2012 (Seminar S56)

The figure of the beautiful reclining female sleeper is a recurring topic in the Victorian imagination which calls on visual, literary and erotic connotations, all contributing to a complex density of readings involving aesthetics, gender definition and medical assumptions of the age. From the Pre-Raphaelites and late Victorian aesthetes to the adaptors of fairy tales, from the explorers of sleep theory to the fascinated crowds who visited Ellen Sadler — the real-life "Sleeping Maid" who is reported to have slept from 1871 to 1880 — artists, scientists and the larger public seem to have shared a common interest in the myth of the Briar Rose and its contemporary implications. This seminar seeks to bring together and examine a corpus of Sleeping Beauties drawn from Victorian art, literature and medical reports and to explore the significance of the enduring revival of the myth.

study for Briarose

Study for one of the attendant wonen in “The Briarose Series” by Burne-Jones. Click on thumbnail for larger image.

Date limite d'envoi des propositions : 31 janvier 2012
Notification d’acceptation : 29 février 2012
Site du congrès : 
Atelier référencé sous la rubrique "Seminar": voir Seminar S56.


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Last modified 14 December 2011