CFP: "Greenscapes: Sense and Meaning: Fields of Dreams (Landscapes of Myth and Imagination)," Brock University, October 1-3, 2009.

Our landscapes have long been the unconscious repository of cultural hopes, fears and desires. From the Garden of Eden to aboriginal Dreamtime, societies have perceived their surrounding natural environment to express cultural values reflected in their myths, legends, sacred texts and belief systems. The occupation, transition, or representation of landscape constitutes an imaginative exercise for both subject and object. Yet imagination is not a consciously controllable process, and dreams can be unsettling portents as well as expressions of wish-fulfillment. We welcome papers that explore landscapes of myth and imagination in real and virtual sites, literary texts, images, and installations and invite proposals on the following topics: • Landscapes of allusion (texts, myths, folktales, legends) • Sacred and Secular Utopias • Profane imagination: ruin, decay and social transgression • Gardens of the ‘first time’: origin myths and social legends • Dream landscapes: fear, desire, and exploring the unconscious. Please send abstracts (up to 250 words) and a brief biography to greenscapes@brocku.ca by January 5, 2009. . . .