Conference at UIUC

GENETIC CRITICISM IN AN INTERDISCIPLINARY CONTEXT:

LITERATURE, VISUAL ARTS, THEATER, MUSIC

Smith Memorial Hall, Room 25, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign

30-31 March 2007

Not only the final outcome but the process of creative endeavor has long attracted attention in various artistic disciplines, but only recently has the potential of coordinated research of this kind begun to be explored in detail. The most rigorous basis for the study of artistic creativity comes not from anecdotal or autobiographical reports, but from original handwritten sketches and drafts and preliminary studies, as well as from revised manuscripts and typescripts, corrected proof sheets, and similar primary sources. Especially since the eighteenth century, writers, composers, and painters have been much concerned with originality of style, which has encouraged intense preliminary efforts preceding and leading toward the production of finished artistic works.

The conference on "Genetic Criticism in an Interdisciplinary Context: Literature, Visual Arts, Theatre, Music," is based on a collaboration between the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and the Centre nationale de recherche scientifique in Paris; the conference organizers are William Kinderman at UIUC and Almuth Grésillon at the CNRS. That "critique génétique" has been a focus of the CNRS is evident from the journal Genesis: Revue internationale de critique génétique. Kinderman is General Editor of the Beethoven Sketchbook Series at the University of Illinois Press, and has written numerous studies exploring the compositional process of various composers.

The interdisciplinary dimension of the conference will be enhanced by the presence of leading scholars in literature and the visual arts as well as music. The conference is coordinated in turn with workshop performances on 30-31 March of the important new play "33 Variations" by distinguished playwright Moisés Kaufman. Kaufman's play explores the creative process of Beethoven as situated at the intersection of life and art, and he thoughtfully probes our own engagement with the artistic legacy of this brilliant, fascinating, witty, and sometimes elusive composer.

Conference Program

Friday morning 9-12 Genetic Criticism and Literature

Caroline Szylowicz, Chair

"Caution: Work in Progress" Almuth Grésillon, CNRS, Paris

"Varieties of Genetic Experience" Geert Lernout, University of Antwerp

"Variant and Variation: Towards a Freudo-bathmologico-Bakhtino-Goodmanian Genetic Model" Daniel Ferrer, CNRS, Paris

"Variants of Pleasure in Roland Barthes: The Genetic Record of a Voice" Armine Kotin Mortimer, UIUC



Friday afternoon 2-5 Musical Sketches and Editions

Katherine R. Syer, Chair

"Beethoven's Eroica Sketchbook" Alan Gosman, University of Michigan, Lewis Lockwood, Harvard University

"Beethoven's Missa solemnis" Patrizia Metzler, UIUC, Fred Stoltzfus, UIUC

"A 'Genetic' Edition of Verdi's La forza del Destino" Philip Gossett, University of Chicago

"'They only give rise to misunderstandings'­Mahler's Sketches in Context" James Zychowicz, Madison/Chicago



Saturday morning 9-12 Perspectives on Painting and Music

Steve Taylor, Chair

"Genetic Evolution: Changes in Delacroix's Creative Process" David O'Brien, UIUC

"Putting the Process into the Product: Exploratory Transitional Passages in Beethoven's Late Quartet Sketches" Peter McCallum, Sydney Conservatorium of Music, University of Sydney

"The Ineffable, The Unspeakable, and the Inspirational. Part One: Motherwell's Mother" Jonathan Fineberg, UIUC

"Studying Very Recent Music & Designing Tools for Sketch Studies: Towards 'Genetic Navigation' Through Digitalized Traces of Compositional Processes" Nicolas Donin, IRCAM, Centre Pompidou, Paris



Saturday afternoon 1:30-3:45 Genetic Criticism and Performance

Tom Mitchell, Chair

"Can Genetic Criticism be Applied to the Performing Arts?" Jean-Louis Lebrave, ITEM-CNRS, Paris

"Beethoven on the Stage" Moisés Kaufman, Director, Tectonic Theater Project, New York

"Beethoven's 'Diabelli' Variations. Lecture/performance" William Kinderman, UIUC

Memorial Room, Smith Memorial Hall



Friday and Saturday evenings, 30 and 31 March (Armory Theater): workshop performances of new play by Moisés Kaufman, "33 Variations," a co-production of the Tectonic Theater Company (New York) and the Arena Stage (Washington DC) (workshop extends from 12-31 March)