HEMINGWAY IN ANDALUSIA 2006 INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
Eby, Carl
The Hemingway Society will hold its 12th Biennial International Conference, 25-30 June 2006, in the beautiful Andalusian cities of Malaga and Ronda.
CONFERENCE PROGRAM
The response to our call for papers has been overwhelming. The abstracts promise broad international representation and a vibrant mix of established scholars, younger scholars, and graduate students. We expect a full program of outstanding quality.
We are currently organizing proposals into panels, with a strong Iberian focus. Given the rich ties between our host cities and many of Hemingway’s major texts, you can expect panels devoted to The Sun Also Rises, For Whom the Bell Tolls, Death in the Afternoon, and The Dangerous Summer. You can also expect panels devoted to bullfighting and the Spanish Civil War. Other papers will explore such topics as The Fifth Column, the short stories, Martha Gellhorn, Hemingway’s friendship with Dos Passes, Hemingway’s reception in Spain, Hemingway’s relation to Spanish writers and artists, problems of translation, S’pain as a symbol in American modernist literature, and the influence of Spanish cultural concepts on Hemingway’s work. However, our focus on things Spanish is not exclusive, and other papers will address all aspects of Hemingway’s life and work, including the recently published Under Kilimanjaro. At least one panel will be devoted to teaching Hemingway, and we are planning a panel-aimed at graduate students, but sure to be of much wider interest-to be titled “Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Publishing But Were Afraid to Ask.”
In addition to the scholarly sessions, which will occupy our mornings and early afternoons, we are planning many special events, from an opening reception at Malaga’s Picasso Museum to the closing banquet in Ronda on the night of June 30. Conferees will eat lunch at La Consula, where they will tour the house and gardens and hear Nena Davis, daughter of Hemingway’s 1959 and 1960 hosts, Bill and Annie Davis, reminisce about Hemingway, her parents, and her childhood home. In Ronda, we will officially be welcomed by the mayor, Antonio Marin Lara, a long-time admirer of Hemingway’s work, who has provided invaluable personal and institutional support and encouragement for the conference. Conferees will be able to tour Ronda’s famous bullring and its excellent taurine museum and will enjoy hours of just walking around this beautiful city. We hope to arrange a photo exhibit featuring the work of Hemingway’s friend, the great taurine photographer, Francisco Cano, who has expressed his enthusiasm to join us. We also hope to screen vintage films of the great 1959 Málaga mano a mano between Antonio Ordóñez and Luis Miguel Dominguín, immortalized by Hemingway in The Dangerous Summer.
This corrida, which Hemingway called “one of the very greatest [he had] ever seen” (DS 168), will be the subject of a remarkable taurine panel. One of Spain’s leading bullfighters, Francisco Rivera Ordóñez-grandson of Antonio, great-nephew of Dominguín, and great-grandson of Cayetano, model for Pedro Romero in The Sun Also Rises-hopes to join us, barring those contingencies affecting working matadors. Borja Domecq Sous, one of the best known and most prestigious ranchers in Spain, has graciously accepted our invitation to be a part of the panel and to share a rancher’s perspective on the “bullfight of the century,” at which he was present and which featured bulls from the ranch of his father, Juan Pedro Domecq. Victor Mendes, one of the world’s top-ranked bullfighters throughout the 19805, has agreed to anchor the panel. Mendes was acquainted with both Antonio Ordóñez and Luis Miguel Dominguin. Additional panel members will be noted journalist, aficionada, and taurine writer, Muriel Feiner, author of six books on bullfighting, and Alien Josephs, past-president of the Hemingway Society and author of numerous articles and books on Hemingway and taurine culture. Also invited to attend will be many of the descendants and family members of the protagonists of those events reflected in The Dangerous Summer, including Cayetano Ordóñez Rivera, Belen Ordonez, Pepe and Antonio Ordóñez, Lucia and Paola Dominguín, Miguel Bose, Fatima and Borja Domecq Noguera and others. We hope conferees will also have an opportunity to exchange impressions informally with representatives of the taurine world which so fascinated Hemingway.
Before the taurine panel, in a smaller early evening session, Victor Mendes will offer a unique “hands-on” opportunity for interested conference participants to examine and discuss with him the “tools of the trade” of bullfighting, such as the suit of lights, capes, parade cape, montera, sword, banderillas, etc., and he will explain some bullfighting strategies and passes. Immediately prior to the panel session, participants will have the opportunity to enjoy a concert of pasodobles by a municipal band.
With the strong academic program, spectacular setting, and exciting special events, this promises to be a conference to remember.
TRAVEL AND ACCOMMODATIONS
Now is the time to start making those travel and hotel reservations. An accommodations page with pictures of hotels, descriptions, prices, telephone and fax numbers, email addresses and web links has been posed on the conference web site: http://www.hemingwaysociety.org/ronda/accommodations.htm. Reservations are easy to make and only a telephone call, fax, or email message away. Be careful to make reservations for one night in Malaga (25 June) and five nights in Ronda (26-30 June), with a departure date of 1 July 2006. To obtain conference discounts, be sure to also mention that you are with Grupo Hemingway, and at the AC Malaga Palacio, be sure to use our group number H6V-2977-M52.
We have also posted a travel page on the conference web site: http://www.hemingwaysociety.org/ronda/travel.htm. Travel arrangements for most conferees will consist of finding a flight into Malaga. From there, on the morning of 26 June, chartered buses will take us to La Consula and on to Ronda. At the end of the conference, on the morning of 1 July, we will run buses back to Malaga. Although there is a high volume of international flights into Malaga, the majority of flights come from Europe. This means that conferees traveling from a destination outside Europe will probably need to make at least one stop. Many major U.S. carriers have code-share arrangements with European airlines, so that passengers may fly to London or Paris or Madrid on American, Delta, or Continental, but then continue to Malaga on British Airways, Air France, or Iberia. That will probably be the typical arrangement, although those choosing Iberia from the U.S would only change planes, not airlines. Here’s the good news: because there are so many connections into Malaga it is probably possible to use frequent flyer miles on almost any airline to get there. It is also easy to combine short vacations and stopovers in other European cities by getting two separate round trip tickets rather than a through ticket. A very cheap flight option with an airline based in the heart of Europe (in Brussels) and with daily direct flights to Malaga and other Spanish and Italian destinations is Virgin Express.
Like hotel reservations, flights can easily be booked over the internet, over the phone, or through a travel agent. If you need assistance with hotel reservations for the conference, however, Site Director Diane Buck has offered to help make those reservations, although you will later need to provide the hotel with your credit card number. For those who plan non-conference-related independent stays in Spain, and who would like Diane, through Intercultural Connections, her company for educational and cultural travel, to provide information or recommendations on travel in Spain, make reservations for flights, train travel, hotels, activities, etc., she will be happy to do so for a discounted flat fee of $60. (Note: Recently, in response to increasing direct sales through the internet, vendors such as airlines and rail companies have eliminated or drastically reduced agency commissions. Therefore, such flat fees-usually of 80euro-are standard for Spanish travel agencies.) Diane can be reached at SiteDirector@hemingwaysociety.org or mdbuck43@aol.com. (If you are using the Site Director email address, which is automatically forwarded, please be sure to include your email address in the text of your message so that she can respond to you.)
POST CONFERENCE ACTIVITIES
Intercultural Connections will be offering a post-conference tour in Spain (1-7 July 2006) including Seville, Granada, Madrid, and Pamplona (5-7 July). The tour will combine a view of the Spanish countryside from south to north, as well as cultural and historical sites, Hemingway sites, and the world-famous celebrations of San Fermín (the running of the bulls) in Pamplona. Accommodations in Seville, Granada, and Madrid will be in 4star hotels and in Pamplona in a 3-star hotel or college dormitory, according to preferences of each participant. A visit to a well-known bull breeding ranch will be included, as well as entrance fees to the cathedrals in Granada and Seville, the spectacular Alhambra in Granada, and the Prado Museum in Madrid. Transportation will be a combination of private tour coach and train travel. A group meal at a fine restaurant and a guided walking tour will be included in each city. In Pamplona participants may choose to attend a bullfight for an additional fee. The group will be accompanied by one or more bilingual Intercultural Connections hosts or hostesses.
The price of the 2006 tour is 1440euro (or 1140euro for those electing the university dormitory option in Pamplona) payable in euros, dollars, or other currencies at the exchange rate on the date of payment, excluding any commissions or transfer fees incurred. As lodging in Pamplona is very expensive during the San Fermin celebrations and fully booked for months in advance, especially for the opening dates when we will be there, we will offer two options for accommodations in Pamplona. The more expensive choice will be a hotel in the center of town and at the center of all activities. The more economical and quieter option will be a university dormitory with single rooms, breakfast included, and shared bathrooms on the outskirts of town, where taxis are necessary to come and go from the center of town (approximately a $10 ride). The price difference between these two options is 100euro per person per night (300euro total), making the total price of the tour for those electing the dormitory option in Pamplona 1140euro.
According to individual vacation and travel plans, some participants may wish to do only certain portions of the tour, such as the Andalusian portion (returning home afterwards from Malaga), or may include the Madrid portion (if they are planning a departure from Madrid), or do only the Pamplona portion including travel to and from Madrid ( if, for example, they have already visited southern cities and prefer to just relax on the Costa del Sol, spend more time in Madrid, or investigate on their own for a few days before going to Pamplona). The Andalusian and Madrid Portion of the tour combined (3 nights in Andalusia, including ranch visit and 1 night in Madrid) is 720euro. The Pamplona portion alone is 720euro. The Andalusian portion alone (without travel to Madrid, lodging, meal, and Prado Museum visit) is 550euro. More detailed information will be sent upon request to interested parties as it becomes available.
REGISTRATION
If you are not a member of the Hemingway Society, or if your membership has lapsed, now is the time to renew your membership. Visit http://hemingwaysociety.org/membership.htm for information about the Society and a link to a printable membership application. In January, all members in good standing will receive a letter with registration materials, information about what to do and where to eat in Malaga and Ronda, information about our conference book table, a tentative conference program, and further information about travel and accommodations. (It is best, however, to book your hotel reservations before January.) We will also post this information on the conference web site: http://www.hemingwaysociety.org/ronda/12th_conf.htm. Be sure to check this site for more information and periodic updates.
CARL EBY AND DIANE BUCK
University of South Carolina and Pepperdine University
Copyright The Hemingway Review Fall 2005
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved
