The International Colloquium Communication and Culture 
in Romance Europe (CICCRE)         
the XII^th edition, June 14-15, 2024,         
West University of Timișoara   

Biography.   
New Methodological Perspectives, Thematic Delimitations, and Case Studies

Call for papers

In European culture, biography has long been seen as the “royal road” to education and knowledge. From Plutarch’s Lives, conceived as individual pedagogical models, to Leopold von Ranke’s History of the Popes, which lacks moralizing and absorbs the individuality of pontifical sovereigns into the broad breaths of historical epochs; from Tacitus’ Agricola, a monument dedicated to the remembrance of a great personality in Roman history, to Carlo Ginzburg’s Menocchio, in his paradigmatic book The Cheese and the Worms, seemingly a narrative of the life of a minor character from the 16th century; from Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Painters to Salvador Dali’s Secret Life, biographical exposition appears to cover an unlimited spectrum of cognitive expectations. It has been embraced by historians, philologists, philosophers, moralists, and even sociologists and psychologists, who have found in the “biographical method” a legitimate research tool that provides answers in the process of interpreting works. Both artistic and scientific creations can be understood from the perspective of the experiences, beliefs, sensibilities, or actual lived ideals of their authors.

It has often been rightly observed that the main advantage of the biographical approach lies in the possibility of projecting the studied “object” along the axis of time; in other words, adopting a diachronic perspective on things and placing them within historicity. However, the biographical perspective has not been exempt from criticism and objections, especially in the second half of the 20th century. On the one hand, systemic paradigms and structuralist models of analysis replaced historicist (implicitly biographical) approaches. On the other hand, “critical” theoretical currents and orientations contested the alleged elitism of biographism, accusing it of focusing on highlighting the lives of great personalities and neglecting the “common man,” “classes”, or “the masses.” Furthermore, the application of quantitative methods in the social sciences, particularly statistical ones, left less and less room for the individual, the singular, and the exception.

Nevertheless, biographies continue to pique the interest of the general public. The lives of presidents, artists, writers, geniuses, and even serial criminals, written by themselves or by others, continue to fascinate. In academic circles, after a period of marginalization, biography seems to be regaining attention. Is it still relevant? What are their current forms? What has it retained from the millennia-old tradition of biographical studies? Has it managed to overcome the various forms of criticism? What can it learn from them? What new thematic and methodological advancements do current biographical studies bring? What is the relevance of biographical intervention in understanding cultural phenomena today? These are some of the challenges of this 12th edition.

All those who are interested – professors, researchers, PhD candidates – are invited to reflect upon the interdiciplinary character of this topic and to submit proposals for one of the following sections: Latin Language and Literature; Romanian Language and Literature; Romanian as a Foreign Language; French Language and Literature; Italian Language and Literature; Portuguese Language and Literature; Spanish Language and Literature; Romance Languages Didactics; Intercomprehension of Romance Languages, Traductology; History and Cultural Studies; Music and Theatre; Arts; Book and Library.