Deadline: June 30, 2025
Conference Title: Ivan Turgenev and the European Novel
Dates and Venues: April 9–11, 2026, in Rouen and Bougival, France
Format: Hybrid format – in-person or online presentations
Working Languages: French, Russian, and English
The international conference “Ivan Turgenev and the European Novel”, jointly organised by the European Ivan Turgenev Museum in Bougival, the Friends of Flaubert and Maupassant, the Meìrimeìe Society, the Literary Society of the Friends of Eìmile Zola, and the Ivan Turgenev Centre at the University of Mons, will take place in Rouen and Bougival from April 9 to 11, 2026.
Ivan Turgenev’s writing is closely connected to the evolution of European literature in the 19th century. The realist, and at times even naturalist, novel, with certain psychological dimensions, played a central role in Turgenev’s work, as it did in that of other European writers. This affinity stems from his interest in the great classics of European literature, which he read and admired from an early age: Voltaire, Rousseau, Shakespeare, Goethe, Schiller, Stendhal, Balzac, Sand, Scribe, Hugo, Dumas, Meìrimeìe, Dickens, Thackeray, among many others. This interest became even more pronounced over time, as Turgenev spent most of his adult life in France and Germany and made frequent visits to England. His integration into the European literary circles of the time was exemplary. In the second half of the 19th century, he became the most widely known Russian writer in Europe; his works were published almost simultaneously in Russia and several European countries. Moreover, he was the first Russian author to engage in a meaningful literary dialogue with his European contemporaries, Flaubert, Maupassant, Zola, the Goncourt brothers, and James, to name just a few.
The main objective of the international conference “Ivan Turgenev and the European Novel” is to explore, from a comparative perspective, the relationship between Turgenev’s novels and the literary works of European authors from the 19th and early 20th centuries, focusing on the following aspects :
· the genre of the novel and its evolution;
· the poetics and imaginative world of the novel;
· intertextuality or the dialogue between texts;
· space and time, and their exploration by authors;
· the role of the novel and its meaning within the cultural context of its production.
Proposals for papers may also address issues relating to the contextualization of Turgenev’s novels and other European writers, such as :
- Ivan Turgenev and his connections with major European novelists;
- Ivan Turgenev as a reader of European novels;
· European writers as readers and commentators of Turgenev’s novels;
· the Turgenevian imprint on the European novel of the 19th and early 20th centuries;
· Turgenev’s work in the correspondence of European writers;
· cross-disciplinary critical reflections (reviews, theoretical writings, and correspondence excerpts);
· the European novel as a reflection of societal transformations.
Submission Guidelines and Timeline
Proposals for papers should be submitted to the organizing committee by June 30, 2025, at the following address: colloque.tourgueniev.roman@alumni.umons.ac.be. Submissions should include a provisional title, an abstract not exceeding 800 characters (including spaces), a brief biographical note (five to ten sentences), and a concise bibliography listing the five most relevant references.