Hair is fundamentally characterized by its precarious and mutinous materiality, which subverts conventionalized dichotomies between the passive and the active. In this capacity, it also serves as a mediator of aesthetic reflection and formalization. Be it knotted, cut or curled, braided, shaved or covered, head and body hair figure as a discursively overloaded site of poetological reflection, narrative composition or experiments in literary genre. One of the basic premises of this conference is that hair constitutes an interface between body aesthetics and issues of plot and narrative synthesis. Particular attention is paid not only to neatly ‘coiffed’ discursive formations or to hair’s narrative entanglements, but also to the poetological quality of hair as a disruptive literary factor.
By bringing together papers from various fields of the Humanities, this international conference seeks to open up new perspectives on the poetics, practices and functions of hair in literature and other media.
The conference is organised by the Class of Literatur (LMU) and will take place online via Zoom. There will be written papers to prepare for the conference. You will get access to these by registering.
For further information on the program and registration, see Eventbrite.