Revising Nabokov Revising Update 2/2/09: In answer to our questionnaire
on willingness to participate in the 2010 Kyoto Nabokov Conference (due
Dec. 31), we are pleased to report we have received more positive replies
than expected. We believe there are already more than enough The Call for Proposals will be sent directly in a few days to each person who has already expressed interest in giving a paper. For students and scholars who wish to participate in the poster sessions (exhibiting short papers during coffee and lunch breaks at the poster session room), there is still time to contact us by e-mail. The due date is February 14. We will send the Call for Proposals individually upon receipt of your application. Thank you all for your great support. The Kyoto Nabokov Conference Committee * * * The Nabokov Society of Japan is pleased to announce that an International Nabokov Conference for 2010 will be held in Kyoto from March 24 to 27. Its aim is to seek possibilities of revising our view of Nabokov in the light of our truly international age. Nabokovians anywhere in the world are invited to participate and share their most recent discoveries regarding Nabokov and his art. Brian Boyd, as adviser to the Conference Committee, has written his endorsement of the conference based on two visits to Japan. We hope you will get an idea of how easy and enjoyable it is to visit us. In order to make this conference as efficient as possible, we need to have an idea of how many participants we will have. Please fill in the “Questionnaire on Kyoto Nabokov 2010” below if you are interested. Conference Site The conference will be held at Co-op Inn, Kyoto, conveniently located in the center of the city. Lodging for conference members will also be at Co-op Inn unless requested otherwise. Call for Papers A call for papers, together with announcements on how to register and how to send proposals, will be posted to NABOKV-L and the “News” page of ZEMBLA in January 2009. The full conference program will be available here in October 2009. Languages Papers may be presented in either English or Russian. Translation of summaries from Russian into English will be provided. Estimated Cost of Registration and Accommodations At the present yen-dollar rate of $1=100 yen, the blanket cost of registration fee and lodging for one person, including a single room at Co-op Inn Kyoto for three nights and four days, breakfast included ($60 per night), as well as the Reception snack on the first day and the Banquet on the third evening, is estimated to be about $400.00. It may become less expensive by the time of registration. The hotel is new and comfortable. Other hotels are also available at extra cost. An excursion by bus in the afternoon of the fourth day is optional. Useful Links for Vistors to Japan Yokoso Nippon!: Japan's Official Travel Website Japan National Tourist Organization (JNTO) How to Get Yen (Japanese Currency) About Sakura (cherry blossoms) Kansai Airport (KIX) (from JNTO) Questionnaire on Kyoto Nabokov 2010 The questionnaire is intended to make it easy for the Conference Committee to plan the event; responses received will not be treated as a formal expression of consent to participate. Please respond to the questions below by e-mail to nsjhp [at] apost.plala.or.jp by December 31, 2008. Feel free to include any questions you have and we will try to answer them in our next posting to ZEMBLA. Please watch for it. 1. Are you interested in participating in the full program? 2. If so, would you be coming with a spouse? 3. Are you interested in presenting a paper? 4. Do you have any questions? Your name: Your affiliation: * * * Tadashi Wakashima and Mitsuyoshi Numano * * * An Endorsement from Brian Boyd As adviser to the Kyoto International Nabokov Conference planned for the spring of 2010, and as a friend of Japanese Nabokov scholars, I would like to encourage other Nabokovians from around the world to participate in the conference. It is being organized by Professor Tadashi Wakashima of Kyoto University, the leading Nabokov Anglicist in Japan (and a wonderfully subtle writer in Japanese, I gather, from snippets of his work others have explained to me), Professor Mitsuyoshi Numano of the University of Tokyo, the leading Japanese Slavist (and another wonderfully subtle writer in Japanese, I am also told), Professor Shin’ichiro Mori of Kyoto University, a Fitzgerald scholar, and Professor Akiko Nakata, who after cotranslating Transparent Things with Tadashi and annotating it led the discussion on the novel on NABOKV-L a few years ago. Like two other professors, Shoko Miura and Maya Minao, she was a delightful student of mine in the Nabokov 101 summer school at the Nabokov Museum in 2002. The Nabokov Society of Japan is the most active national Nabokov society anywhere, with about 60 members, their own journal, Krug, and almost monthly reading groups on particular Nabokov works as well as their annual meeting. Both Anglicists and Slavists from around the country participate. Since they think nothing of converging in Tokyo or Kyoto from opposite ends of the country, they know one another well but are also wonderfully welcoming to overseas guests, like Alexander Dolinin, Julian Connolly, Zoran Kuzmanovich, Vladimir Alexandrov, myself (and one of my graduate students), and, for the three months around the conference, Michael Wood, who will give the keynote talk at the conference. There is no need to be deterred from visiting Japan because of the expense. I have thoroughly enjoyed myself there twice on the puny New Zealand dollar (aka the South Pacific peso) and don’t think Kyoto as expensive as New York, London or Paris. And Japan is astonishingly exquisite, especially in and around Kyoto, with its thousand temples. The gardens, the architecture, the divine food, the manners, the crafts, the combination of long traditions and bold innovations make it fascinating and unforgettable. And the hospitality is, shall we say, intoxicating. The organizers have even timed the conference to coincide with the last ume (plum) blossom season and the sakura (so-called "cherry") buds. Central Kyoto, where the hotel is located, offers a compact and inexhaustible supply of restaurants and arcade, back-street and main-street shops and easy access to the simple subway and bus system, which can take you to temples and gardens. The city has a grid system established over a millennium ago and already part of the background of the masterpiece of Japanese literature, The Tale of Genji. Among those who have already confirmed their attendance are Julian Connolly, Alexander Dolinin, Jeff Edmunds, Yuri Leving, Michael Wood, and myself. Do join us. Brian Boyd Zembla depends on frames for navigation. If you have been referred to this page without the surrounding frame, click here.
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