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Amor Vincit Omnia : Love as a Destructive Force in Italian Arts and Literature24-25 avril 2015Université de ChicagoThe students of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures in the specialization of Italian and the Department of Art History at the University of Chicago invite papers for an interdisciplinary graduate student conference “Amor Vincit Omnia : Love as a Destructive Force in Italian Arts and Literature” to be held on April 24 and 25, 2015.The motto “Love conquers all” has become ubiquitous for love’s ability to overcome all obstacles, physical as well as psychological, that impede the union of two lovers. However, in its original context “amor vincit omnia” in Virgil actually refers to love’s ability to destroy both the lover and the beloved; the speaker of this phrase, Gallus, immediately kills himself after its declaration. The destructive nature of love has been addressed by Italian artists and writers from antiquity to modern times. Virgil’s depiction of Dido, Bernini’s Apollo and Daphne, Dante’s Paolo and Francesca, Verdi’s Aida, and, more recently, Fellini’s Cabiria and De Chirico’s Ariadne all explore love’s disastrous consequences. This conference aims to explore the varieties of representation of sorrowful love and its evolution over time; new understandings that can be gleaned from a variety of evidence; and dialogue and divergence between portrayals of tragic Italian love across the Humanities.We seek papers that address the theme of Amor vincit omnia, or love as a motivator for the demise of the self or the destruction of the object of desire. Potential topics this conference seeks to examine include, but are not limited to:Objects of desire: variations of Venus, the Donna Angelicata, and Adonis, and the effect of gender on portrayals of both the lover and the belovedUnorthodoxy in depictions of sexualityPortraiture, funeral monuments, and elegies as expressions of longing or lossFuneral processions and the relationship of death and urbanismTragedy within the familial or Platonic frameworkNarcissism as an impetus towards self-destructionSuicide and self-harm as a result of unrequited or deceptive loveAlienation from Godly or spiritual loveLove misdirected at animals or the inanimatePhilosophies of tragic love in art and literaturePortrayals or imitations of the Italian lover in theaterSelf-destructive love through the medium of cinemaTheories, remedies, and consequences of lovesicknessMusic’s ability to provoke and dramatize tragic lovePlease email a 250 word abstract to italiangradconference@gmail.com by 1 February 2015, including your Name, C.V., and any technology requests.All current graduate students, as well as junior scholars in Art History, Literature, and related disciplines are invited to submit an abstract to this conference. Abstracts will be accepted in English, Italian, and French.Keynote Address:Dr. Giuseppe Mazzotta, Sterling Professor of Humanities for Italian, Yale UniversityClosing Address:Dr. Hendrik Dey, Professor of Art History, Hunter CollegeThe University of Chicago, Dept. of Romance Languages and Literature and the Dept. of Art History&#160;SourceImage : Caravaggio, Amor vincit omnia, v. 1601-1602, huile sur toile, 154 × 110 cm, Dresde, Gemäldegalerie&#160;