INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE AND THEATRE ©2022
ISCLT: WHO, WHY, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE
Before the Fellows of Salzburg Seminar 148 (Contemporary American Literature, July 1973) left Schloß Leopoldskron the spirit of reunion was alive. A small two-week conference at Arundel, Sussex during August 1974 featured a dozen papers, dramatic performances and readings, excursions, and exotic cuisine. ‘Kraków-1975’ proved unrealisable, and at short notice randomly-invited Fellows of the 1972 and 1974 Salzburg theatre groups joined the 1973 Fellows in Florence, where, at the end of by now traditional activities, thirty-four people, including spouses, decided to form the INTERNATIONAL SOCIETY FOR CONTEMPORARY LITERATURE AND THEATRE (ISCLT).
The 1976 conference, at Alnwick Castle in Northumberland, broke new ground, with an overall theme (‘Alienation’), an extended excursion to the Edinburgh Festival, and the appointment of Professors Denis Donoghue, Richard Ellmann, Martin Esslin, Sergio Perosa and Tamás Ungváry as advisors (now ISCLT’s ‘FOUNDING BOARD OF ADVISORS’). Later themes and venues include
1977 - ‘Convention and Experiment’ - Istanbul
1978 - ‘The Comic Spirit of the Post-Modernist Era’ - Salamanca
1979 - ‘The Artist, the Critic and the Creative Process - Perugia
1980 - ‘The Seventies Revisited’ - Brugge
1981 - ‘Myth’ - Athens
1982 - ‘The Quixotic and the Picaresque’ - Granada
1983 - ‘Europe and America: New Discoveries’ - Marzell, Germany
1984 - ‘Dramatic Languages’ - Normandy
1985 - ‘Fantasy and the Fantastic’ - Harlaxton Manor, England
1986 - ‘Ancients and Moderns’ - Siklos, Hungary
1987 - ‘Concepts of Character’ - Santiago de Compostela
1988 - ‘Time’ - Dubrovnik
1989 - ‘Significant Voices of the Eighties’ - Normandy
1990 - ‘Place’ - Svendborg, Denmark
1991 - ‘Memory’ - Celleno, Italy
1992 - ‘Evil’ - Bushey, England
1193 - ‘Ritual and Chaos’ - Radolvjica, Slovenia
1994 - ‘The Journey’ - Verbania-Intra, Italy
1995 - ‘Mystery’ - Siguenza, Spain
1996 - ‘New Images of America’ - Park City, Utah, USA
1997 - ‘The Past in the Present’ - Maynooth, Ireland
1998 - ‘The Representation of Landscape and the Natural World ’ - Huissen, The Netherlands
1999 - ‘The Individual and Identity’ - Todtmoss, Germany
2000 - ‘Sensory Perception and the Body’ - Santillana del Mar, Spain
2001 - ‘Word and Images’ - Nice, France
2002 - ‘Otherness: Self and Stranger’ - Kazimierz Dolny, Poland
2003 - ‘Bestiaries and Animal Metaphors’ - Giggleswick, England
2004 - ‘Hero and Anti-Hero’ - Samobor, Croatia
2005 - ‘Cultural Encounters’ - Cortona, Italy
2006 - ‘Water’ - Kilyos, Turkey
2007 - ‘Betrayal and Deception’ - Laulasma, Estonia
2008 - ‘Enchantment’ - Ronda, Spain 2008
2009 - ‘The World’s a Stage’ - Leiria, Portugal
2010 - ‘Vanishing and Emerging Voices’ - Strunjan, Slovenia
2011 - ‘The First Decade of the Twenty-first Century’ - Lovran, Croatia
2012 - ‘Beyond Borders’ - Vicoforte, Italy
2013 - ‘Exile’ - Augustow, Poland
2014 - ‘Rewriting the Past’ - St Jacut de la Mer, Brittany
2015 - ‘Escape’ - St Germain au Mont d’Or, France
2016 - ‘Tradition and Change’ - Teruel, Spain
2017 - ‘Solidarity’ - Gdansk, Poland
2018 - ‘Searches and Destinations’ - Solin, Croatia
2019 - ‘Memory’ - Vicoforte, Italy 2019
Conferences 2020 and 2021 organized online due to Covid ‘Mirth’;
2022 - ‘Home and Community’ - Solin, Croatia
2023 - ‘Habitat and Sustainability’ - Šmarješke Toplice, Slovenia
2024 ”Uncovering the Past in Contemporary Literature and Theatre” - Bressanone (Italy)
2025 – Zagreb (Croatia) – Theme: "Joy and Sorrow in the 21st Century in Contemporary Literature and Theatre"