CFP English Version

 

Perception and Intermediality in Art and Literature in the English-speaking World from the Renaissance to Today

 

Université de Haute Alsace, Mulhouse

7-8 October 2026

 

CALL FOR PAPERS

 

Although its definition is highly multivalent, intermediality is generally understood as the study of interrelations and interactions between different media. Whether one’s considerations are based on the still relevant distinction between ‘media combination,’ involving the copresence of both media within the same work, ‘medial transposition,’ and ‘intermedial references’ (Rajewsky 2005), or on the more inclusive distinction between ‘synthetic, ‘formal,’ ‘transformational’ or ‘ontological’ forms of intermediality (Schröter 2012), the interplay between different media always energises the perceiver’s ability to see, hear or feel. The question of the perception of intermedial relationships, from Latin perspicere meaning ‘to see through’ also expressing the action of understanding or reaping the benefits of something, therefore involves investigations into the way sensory perceptions lead to the understanding of what lies beyond them. The four modalities structuring all media highlighted by Elleström (2010), namely material, sensorial, spatio-temporal, and semiotic, thus work hand in glove.

This conference will focus on intermediality in all its manifold manifestations (texts and images, texts and music, visual arts and music, performing arts, cinema, etc.) in relation with the question of perception which itself interrogates the interrelations between the sensible and the spiritual. Among the possible topics we would welcome are contributions studying the following possible interactions between these concepts:

·       Intermediality as a mode of expanded perception: each media appealing to distinct sensory channels (for example sight, hearing or touch), their combination creates a multifarious synaesthetic perception which expands the sensory complexity of the work. Intermediality embeds the spiritual in the sensorial in a way which markedly differs from the way it is expressed (or felt) through a single medium.

·       Intermediality as perturbation or revival of reception: mixed media, hybrid and other intermedial works can unsettle the beholder’s narrative markers; the combination of perceptions may also reconfigure meaning without fixing it in a definite form. Meaning circulates between the media and the spectator, it is produced by the relationship between the media and the beholder.

·       Intermediality as a mode of remediation and transposition: a medium may incorporate another as a form of extension, commentary or criticism where meaning is no longer solely produced by the source medium but by its comparison with other semiotic forms. The reader/spectator may increase their awareness of the medium itself, of its artificiality, or of its limits, which may produce aesthetic self-reflexivity and foster a form of heightened presence of the reader/spectator.

Papers could focus on intermedial relations in literature, music, painting, photography, performing arts or cinema in the English-speaking world. Topics include, but are not limited to:

-          Case studies showcasing polysemiotic or transmedial works.

-          Media materiality

-          Translations and remediations

-          Reception theory, phenomenology of perception

-          Neuropsychological approaches, cognitive narratology

-          Self-referentiality, representations of sensory perception

-          Methodological and theoretical considerations on the history of concepts,

-          Synchronic or diachronic comparative studies, evolutions brought about by the development of new technologies, and more.

Papers will be presented either in French or in English. The conference will take place exclusively in person.

Paper proposals (300 words max) and a short bibliography with biographical notes should be sent to Fabrice Schultz (fabrice.schultz@uha.fr), Maxime Leroy (maxime.leroy@uha.fr) and Jennifer K. Dick (jennifer-kay.dick@uha.fr) by 30 April 2026

 

 

Scientific Committee

Jennifer K. Dick, Université de Haute Alsace

Jérôme Game, Haute école des arts du Rhin, Mulhouse

Jean-Philippe Heberlé, Université de Lorraine

Shannon Wells-Lassagne, Université Bourgogne Europe

Maxime Leroy, Université de Haute Alsace

Fabrice Schultz, Université de Haute Alsace

 

Select Bibliography

Aebischer, Pascale. “Technology and the Ethics of Spectatorship.” In James C. Bulman, ed., The Oxford Handbook of Shakespeare and Performance, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017, 302-320.

Beyaert-Geslin, Anne. “La photographie comme méta-image. La photo, modèle de la photo et de la peinture.” Signata 11, 2020. URL: https://journals.openedition.org/signata/2749.

Elleström, Lars, ed. Beyond Media Borders, Volume 1: Intermedial Relations among Multimodal Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021.

Elleström, Lars. “The Modalities of Media: A Model for Understanding Intermedial Relations.” In Lars Elleström, ed., Media Borders, Multimodality and Intermediality, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010, 11-48.

Elleström, Lars. Media Transformation. The Transfer of Media Characteristics among Media. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2014.

Grishakova, Marina. “Intermediality: Introducing Terminology and Approaches in the Field.” In Jørgen Bruhn, Asun López-Varela Azcárate, Miriam de Paiva Vierira, eds., The Palgrave Handbook of Intermediality, Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2025, vol. 1, 13-29.

Jensen, Klaus Bruhn. Media Convergence: The three degrees of network, mass, and interpersonal communication. Londres: Routledge, 2010.

Jensen, Klaus Bruhn. “Intermediality.” In The Wiley Blackwell Encyclopedias of Communication, 3/3/2016. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118766804.wbiect170.

Louvel, Liliane. Le tiers pictural : Pour une critique intermédiale. Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, 2010.

Montandon, Alain (1990) : “Présentation.” In Alain Montandon, ed., Iconotextes, Clermont-Ferrand: Orphys, 1990, 5-9.

Müller, Jürgen E. “L’intermédialité, une nouvelle approche interdisciplinaire : perspectives théoriques et pratiques à l’exemple de la vision de la télévision.” Cinémas : revue d'études cinématographiques / Cinemas: Journal of Film Studies, vol. 10, n^o 2-3, 2000, 105-134.

Müller, Jürgen E. “Vers l'intermédialité : histoires, positions et option d'un axe de pertinence.” Médiamorphoses, vol. 16, 2006, 99-110.

Nerlich, Michael. “Qu’est-ce qu’un iconotexte ? Réflexions sur le rapport texte-image photographique dans La Femme se découvre d’Évelyne Sinnassamy.” Dans Alain Montandon, ed., Iconotextes, Clermont-Ferrand: Orphys, 1990, 255-302.

Rajewsky, Irina. “Intermediality, Intertextuality, and Remediation: A Literary Perspective on Intermediality.” Erudit 6, 2005, 43–64.

Rippl, Gabriele. “Introduction.” In Gabriele Rippl, ed., Handbook of Intermediality: Literature – Image – Sound – Music, Berlin: De Gruyter, 2015, 1–31.

Sanders, Julie. Adaptation and Appropriation, Milton Park: Routledge, 2006.

Schröter, Jens. “Four Models of Intermediality.” In Bernd Herzogenrath, ed., Travels in Intermediality: ReBlurring the Boundaries, Hanover: Dartmouth College Press, 2012, 15-36.

Uricchio, William. “Things to Come in the American Studies-Media Studies Relationship.” In Winfried Fluck, Erik Redling, Sabine Sielke et Hubert Zapf, eds., American Studies Today: New Research Agendas, Heidelberg: Winter, 2014, 363–38.

Wolf, Werner. The Musicalization of Fiction: A Study in the Theory and History of Intermediality. Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1999.

Wolf, Werner. “Intermediality.” In David Herman, Manfred Jahn, Marie-Laure Ryan, eds., Routledge Encyclopaedia of Narrative Theory. London: Routledge, 2005, 252-256.