Call for Papers
38th Annual Convention, March 1-4, 2007 Baltimore,
Maryland
This document may be subject to change.
The NeMLA Board of Directors is delighted to offer this range
and quality of proposed panels for our 2007 Convention.
With the speakers and special events that are being arranged,
this convention promises to be an invigorating exchange.
Deadline for abstracts: September 15, 2006(unless otherwise
noted)
Please include with your abstract: Name and Affiliation /
Email address / Postal address / Telephone number / A/V
requirements (if any)
Panelists renew/join and register no later than Nov. 30, 2006
for the 2007 membership year or risk being dropped from the convention
program. You need not be a NEMLA member in order to submit a
paper for consideration and you may submit to more than one session.
However for the Convention, members may present at only ONE panel,
though members may participate in a panel and a roundtable or
other alternative session.
Panel Areas (click on a link to go to that area's listings)
American
See also panels listed under:
Comparative Literature:
Plantation America
English/British:
Ghosts of the Nineteenth Century / Negotiating Homeplace in the
Nineteenth Century / Weird Science in Nineteenth-Century Literature
Gay/Lesbian:
What Can You Do With a "Handsome Sailor"? : (Re)Reading
Beautiful Young Men in American Literature
Italian:
Revisiting the Past. Re-conceptualizing the Present
Popular Culture:
Baltimore as Backdrop / Fairy Tale Visions and (Re)Visions /
H.L. Mencken: The Sage of Baltimore / Literature, Narrative and
Medicine / Medicine and Poetry: The Poultice and the Pen / Food
for Thought: Culinary, Literary and Cultural Views of Food in
Literature, Film, Theater
Spanish/Portuguese:
Hispanic and Latino Literature and Art of the East Coast / Spatial
Metaphors and Writing in Latin American and Latino/a Works /
Writing Hunger
Women’s Studies:
The Politics of Humor: Women and Satire in the 20th-Century
/ The Transatlantic New Woman
19th Century African-American Autobiography Board-Sponsored.
In honor of NeMLA’s return to Maryland, the state of Frederick
Douglass’ birth, this board-sponsored panel invites papers
on any aspect of nineteenth-century African American literature.
Papers that focus on autobiography and/or on the position of
Baltimore and Maryland within African American cultural history
are especially welcome.Send abstracts to Jason Haslam, Dalhousie
University: Jason.Haslam@dal.ca
American Literature, Literary Theory, and Constitutional
Law This panel will provide an opportunity for us to
think about the relationships between literature and law and
invites submissions that specifically explore the intersections
between U.S. Constitutional Law, Literary Theory, and American
Literature. Authors should build their presentations around the
following topics: judging and choice; the ethical act and ethical
responsibility; law, norms, and power; paradoxes of equity; identity,
subjectivity, and conformity; interpretation, authority, and
legitimacy; and punishment, retribution, and redemption. Please
send inquiries or 250-500 word abstracts (MSWord attachments
only) to Trisha Brady, tmbrady@buffalo.edu
American Poetry in the 1950s: At the Boundary of the
Postmodern? American poetry in the 1950s included
Late Modernism, Olson's announcement that "we are now 'post'
the modern," a renewed interest in strict forms (like the
villanelle), and the beginnings of such innovative "schools"
as Black Mountain, Beat, New York, confessional, and Deep Image.
Papers that explore the interactions, rivalries, and influences
of the poetics of that decade will be considered. Gary
Grieve-Carlson, Lebanon Valley College: grieveca@lvc.edu
American Working-Class Literature Papers
are invited that explore questions of definition, intersection
of class and other identities, working-class stylistics, studies
of specific authors. Michelle M. Tokarczyk, Goucher College:
M_Tokarczyk@comcast.net
The Anti-Hero: Because Good Doesn't Have to be Nice
Roundtable. Please submit abstracts or papers considering
the role of the "anti-hero" in popular fiction. Work
in all genres will be accepted, but examinations of the high
fantasy anti-hero (e.g. Elric of Melnibone, Thomas Covenant the
Unbeliever) are especially appreciated. Email submissions to
Elric M. Kline, Rutgers University: elric.kline@gmail.com.
Belles, Bitches, and Everything in Between: Constructing
Women in Literature of the American South Scarlett O'Hara,
the spoiled plantation daughter surviving by her wits and sexuality
during the Civil War, is the best-known fictional Southern woman
in America. However, male and female authors of twentieth century
Southern literature construct mothers, daughters, sisters, wives,
lovers, leaders, and activists and endow them with everything
from saintly goodness to outright insanity. This panel seeks
papers that address fictional and non-fictional portrayals of
Southern women in terms of race, place, and economics as well
as age and societal position. Abstracts of 250-500 words including
affiliation and contact info should be emailed to Monica F. Jacobe
at 09jacobe@cua.edu.
Cultural Exchange in Native and European American
Literatures How have Native and European
American writers negotiated the contact zone? Papers from all
periods and genres in American literature are invited. Possible
topics might include transculturation, assimilation, hybridity
and cultural difference; accounts of captivity, colonization
and sovereignty; examples of performing identity and "playing
Indian;" sites of translation and cultural (mis)representation;
issues of redaction, voice, authority and textual mediation.
John Kucich, Bridgewater State College <jkucich@bridgew.edu>
E.L. Doctorow's The March In
2006, E. L. Doctorow published The March, a historical
novel whose action follows General William Tecumseh Sherman's
1864-65 campaign through Georgia and the Carolinas. This novel
earned Doctorow his second PEN/Faulkner award (his first was
in 1990 for Billy Bathgate), and is earning both critical
and popular success. This panel would be devoted to early attempts
at scholarship on this recent work by one of America's most respected
novelists. Panelists may discuss the importance of this work
in relation to Doctorow's other historical fictions, contemporary
re-evaluations of history, or Doctorow's developing political
and historical agenda. James J. Donahue, University of
Connecticut: jadonahu@flash.net
Edgar Allan Poe Board-Sponsored.
In honor of the only Super Bowl champions named after a nineteenth-century
poem--but more importantly in honor of NeMLA’s return to
Baltimore--this board-sponsored panel invites papers on any aspect
of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Send abstracts to Jason Haslam,
Dalhousie University: Jason.Haslam@dal.ca
Emerson as Language Theorist This panel
will examine the implications of Emerson's theory of language
articulated in his many essays, including Nature, as it stands
at the center of his philosophical, aesthetic and political thought.
We encourage papers that explore specific intersections involving
the problems, possibilities, and paradoxes of language in Emerson's
work. Paper topics might include: Allegory and violence; language,
limit and transcendence; selfhood and the rhetoric of self-reliance;
the poetics of metamorphosis; political symbolism; representations
of the body; dualisms; sexual symbolism. Please send inquiries
or 250-500 word abstracts to Sean Kelly, sjkelly@buffalo.edu
Frances E.W. Harper in Context
Board -Sponsored. Baltimore-born writer Frances Ellen Watkins
Harper published her best known novel, Iola Leroy, when
she was 67, at the end of Harper's long and successful
writing career as a poet and journalist. This panel seeks submissions
on any aspect of Harper's work. Of special interest would be
papers that seek to contextualize her writings in a variety of
ways: in terms of her work in different genres; in terms of her
activism; in terms of her contemporaries; her influence on later
writers, etc. Please address inquiries and submissions to Rita
Bode, email: rbode@trentu.ca.
Ladies, I Address You Privately: Sentimentality and
the 20th Century Novel The sentimental was
viewed during most of the 20th century as incompatible with the
vision of the serious writer. Female authors had to be particularly
careful to stay away from romance novels—and, more generally,
from writing for a specifically female and/or mass audience—if
they wanted to be considered writers of literature. This panel
welcomes papers that look in different ways at the foreclosed
sentimental in texts by both male and female American writers
of the 20th century, and also invites theoretical explications
of sentimentality and related terms and concepts. Please send
paper proposals to Alexa Weik at aweik@ucsd.edu
Literature, Readers and Democracy How
are contemporary writers, to use Rosa Eberly's term, engaged
in creating readers who are citizen critics—readers involved
in producing "discourses about issues of common concern
from an ethos of citizen first and foremost—not as expert
or spokesperson for a workplace or as a member of a club or organization"?
Panel seeks 500-word proposals that explore diverse ways in which
contemporary American writers call upon readers to engage
actively with the worlds around them and to see themselves as
necessary participants in building and sustaining democracy.
Email proposals as Word attachment to Jen Riley at
j1riley@umassd.edu
The Madwoman in the (American) Attic : Theoretical
Approaches to Mental Illness This panel focuses
on the mental state and treatment of female characters in American
literature. Is mental illness a reflection of the society and
the changes occurring within its structure? Is it a means to
marginalize? Does it reflect unwanted change and the fears that
result? Does its represent an effort to control and to silence
those who threaten the status quo? The panel calls for papers
that apply various theoretical approaches in their analysis of
mental illness and the effort to place the American woman in
the figurative attic. Panel proposals should be sent to Beth
Jensen, bjensen@gpc.edu
Men at Home: Masculine Domesticity in Nineteenth-Century
America In Rural Studies (1867), Donald
Grant Mitchell describes ways of appealing to "a man's sense
of domesticity" in the architecture and decoration of homes.
This panel will focus on connections between men and the home
in nineteenth-century America. What signals a "masculine"
domestic space in mid-century literature and culture? In what
ways do men's domestic priorities differ from those of women,
and how might new considerations of a masculine domesticity change
our understanding of nineteenth-century home life? Send 300-500
word abstracts to Maura D'Amore <mauradamore@unc.edu>
The Narrative Past: Historical Fiction from Past to
Present In the last couple of decades, historical
fiction has again garnered the interest of critics as well as
of contemporary novelists and filmmakers creating postmodern
historical metafiction and film. This panel explores the multiple
and multivalent connections between historical novels of the
past and historical fiction and film of the present. It seeks
to provoke discussion of fresh critical approaches to historical
narratives of the nineteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Tara McGann, American University: mcgann@american.edu
Narratives of Old Age “Narratives of
old age" refers to works of fiction depicting an ageing
protagonist engaged in a purgative act of remembering. The panel
will explore the ways in which the self is constructed through
the interplay of memory and fantasy. It will ponder the effects
of trauma on the ageing narrator and reflect on the role of storytelling
as a means of engaging with melancholia. Dr Cathia Jenainati,
The University of Warwick: C.Jenainati@warwick.ac.uk
Native North American Literature This
session welcomes submissions on any aspect of Native American
Studies, including literature, literary separatism, film, culture,
spirituality, language, gender, tribal politics, race, and ethnicity.
Papers addressing the recent critical works by writers such as
Robert Warrior and Thomas King are especially welcome. Please
send 250 word abstracts to: Benjamin D. Carson at benjamin.carson@gmail.com
Negotiating Marriage in the Fiction of John Updike
Even when John Updike's fiction most centers on
self-involved, indecisive men, Updike still shows an interest
in the women married to these passive-aggressive men. While
these female characters are largely supporting or background
figures, in novels like Witches of Eastwick and Gertrude
and Claudius Updike examines directly female characters'
attempt to recover from unsatisfying marriages. This panel
invites papers on the dynamics of marriage in the fiction of
John Updike, with a particular interest in portrayals of wives
and ex-wives. Send 250-500 word abstracts to Elizabeth
Abele <abelee@ncc.edu>
The New American Poetry: (Almost) Fifty Years Later
(Almost) fifty years later, we seek to trace the influence of
Donald Allen's seminal anthology, The New American Poetry,
to gain new understanding of how to (re)define postmodernism,
while examining the past, present, and future of the avant-garde
in American poetry. Possible considerations: Has a particular
group of New American poets emerged as more influential than
others? How current is the influence of Pound and Williams by
way of this anthology? What might have Allen's "arbitrary"
division into its five sections have to do with the way poetry
is taught today? How it is published? Critical reception of current
poets? 250-300 word abstracts to be submitted via email attachment
(MS Word) to John R. Woznicki, woznicki@georgian.edu
New Trends in American Jewish Fiction
Over the last decade, a spate of new Jewish writers have appeared
in American fiction. Some, like Gary Shteyngart and Laura Vapnyar,
are read as examples of a new Jewish immigrant fiction, while
others, like Jonathan Safran Foer and Myla Goldberg, are lumped
in with post-postmodern writers. And then there's Dara Horn who,
in her desire to write like I.L. Peretz and S.Y. Agnon, but in
English, escapes all categories. This panel seeks papers that
offer fresh analyses of the shape and direction of contemporary
American Jewish fiction. Send abstracts to Matthew Wilson, Penn
State Harrisburg: mtw1@psu.edu
Octavia Butler's Legacy in the Classroom
In February 2006, Octavia Butler unexpectedly passed away at
the age of 58. This panel seeks to honor her impact on the literature
classroom. Presentations should focus on pedagogical approaches
to Butler's works. Presentations welcome on teaching selected
works; teaching Butler in a comparative context ("Butler
AND ____"); reading groups; and many other subjects. Submit
cover letter and 1-2 page proposals to Dr. Eva Tettenborn, Penn
State Worthington Scranton, 120 Ridge View Dr., Dunmore, PA 18512,
or email cover letter/message and abstract (up to 500 words)
to nemla06@cfp.tettenborn.org.
NO attachments please.
Race and American Literature Board-Sponsored. Papers are invited that examine representations
of race by writers of any ethnicity in any period of American
literature. Send abstracts to Matthew Wilson, Penn State
Harrisburg: mtw1@psu.edu
Racial Passing Since 1990 This panel seeks papers that explore
literary and/or television/filmic representations of racial passing
since 1990. Papers should contextualize a reading of contemporary
racial passing within the historical tradition of passing. They
might ask how the purpose or means of passing has changed or
highlight continuities (or both). Ideally, the papers will lead
to a discussion of the exclusionary boundaries that continue
to demarcate racial identity, the potential means of deconstructing
those boundaries, and the consequences of such deconstruction.
Email 300-word abstracts (in text) to Julie Cary Nerad,
juliecarynerad@racescholar.net.
Please provide a brief bio (including academic affiliation and
contact information).
Reading in Yoruba Between Henry Louis
Gates Jr.'s Signifying Monkey, Toni Morrison's Playing in the
Dark, and Valerie Lee's Granny Midwives and Black Women Writers,
literary criticism has arisen that acknowledges occluded "Africanist
presence" and offers theoretical approaches grounded in
alternative schemata. A body of work is building in Yoruba schemata;
for example, Gates' reading through the figure Eshu and Teresa
N. Washington's Our Mothers, Our Powers, Our Text: Manifestations
of Aje in Africana Literature, which reads through Aje, the ‘powerful
mothers'. This proposal calls for Yoruba readings of literary
texts and conversations about theories and methodologies suggested
by this trajectory in criticism. Menoukha Case, University at
Albany, menoukha@yahoo.com
Revisiting/Reframing Nella Larsen The
recent publication of a new biography on Nella Larsen invites
us to recast her work from a variety of critical and disciplinary
perspectives. For this panel, I seek papers offering fresh readings
of Larsen's texts--casting or further developing lines of inquiry
into her work. I am particularly interested in analyses that
are attentive to questions of racial 'authenticity,' gender and
sexuality, cosmopolitanism, and aesthetics. Please send 300-500
word abstracts and brief biographical statements (via snail-mail
or email) to Erika Williams, erika_williams@emerson.edu:
Erika Williams, Institute for Liberal Arts and Interdisciplinary
Studies, Emerson College, Boston, MA 02116.
Shaping the Future of Octavia Butler: Towards Understanding
Her Legacy The recent, tragic death of Octavia
Butler occasions comments about her legacy. This panel seeks
to identify and trace Butler's characteristic concerns: the individual
and the community, the mobility of identity, the semi-permeable
barrier between self and Other, the voice of the liminal, and
the nebulous and changing loci of race, gender and sexuality.
We welcome papers that examine characteristic themes in any work
or her opus as a whole. Submit 250-500 word abstracts to Shari
Evans, either as a word attachment to sevans@umassd.edu,
or in hard copy to Shari Evans, Assistant Professor of English,
University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth, 285 Old Westport Road,
North Dartmouth, MA 02747-2300.
Spy Narratives and Security In the name of homeland security, universities
have been ordered to upgrade their network systems against "criminals,
terrorists and spies." What is literary studies' particular
relation to a national project of security, spying, surveillance?
How does an atmosphere of secrecy and spying change how we read?
Possible paper topics include: literary or film representations
or theorizations of the spy; global or post-9/11 spies; reading
as spying (textual encryption, reader as decoder, breaching narrative
codes); institutional status of secrets and security (authorizing
or classifying secrets, conducting surveillance, leaks). 250-word
abstracts to Karen Steigman, stei0303@umn.edu.
Transatlantic Modernism and the Task of Negro Womanhood
This panel invites participants to look at resonances among the
work of modernist women artists and writers who explore what
it meant to be doubly denigrated (and doubly conscious) as a
black woman in the 1920 and ‘30s. Allowing a cultural studies
approach to the Harlem Renaissance, what are the
various narratives in dialogue with modern artwork by women? Can
these artistic creations offer feminist representations of fragmented,
displaced, or tormented female identity within a modernist cosmopolitan
context? Please send (via e-mail) a 250 word abstract, contact
information, and a short CV as Word attachments to: Dr. Emily
M. Hinnov, BGSU Firelands College; ehinnov@bgsu.edu
Traumatic Haunting in Asian American Literature This
panel session will address how historical, cultural, and personal
traumas haunt Asian American authors, characters, and narrative
structures. Furthermore, how do historical traumas manifest themselves
through Asian American female bodies in literature? Why are historical
traumas and personal/sexual/bodily traumas so often simultaneously
narrated in Asian American literature? Is this phenomenon of
trauma ‘haunting' the present experienced differently by
male and female Asian American characters? How would/does this
focus on trauma in contemporary Asian American literature contribute
to the study of trauma? Abstracts of 250-500 words should be
sent by email to Amy Lillian Manning: amy.manning2@verizon.net
Whitman and Race Walt Whitman's
celebration of a humanity without boundaries has been credited
for its multicultural potential in some quarters, and criticized
for its oppressive disregard for difference, in other quarters.
Any papers that examine Whitman's treatment of race as an issue,
as well as racial bodies as human subjects, are welcome. Papers
examining interpretations of Whitman by people of color are especially
welcome. Robert Lopez, Canisius College <robertoscarlopez@gmail.com>
Williams Carlos Williams and the American Avant-Garde
Scholars are invited to submit papers that examine William Carlos
Williams's involvement in the formation of the early avant-garde
movement in America, as well as papers that explore his influence
on later poets and trends in American poetry. Interdisciplinary
approaches are encouraged. Abstracts should be no longer than
250 words. Please submit as an attachment to Paul R. Cappucci:
cappuccip@georgian.edu
Women's Poetry and the Firesides This
panel seeks papers that explore the relationship between nineteenth-century
women poets and the Fireside poets. The premise of this panel
is that one very profitable way of understanding the Fireside
poets and how they functioned in the nineteenth century is through
the recent scholarship on women's poetry, since many of the conventions
and features of women's poetry – the sentimental aesthetic,
traditional poetic forms, the prevalence of occasional verse,
the view of poetry as a form of political rhetoric – can
also be found in the Firesides. Please send a 300-word abstract
to Andrew C. Higgins, higgins_andrew@yahoo.com
Writing the Wilderness The panel invites papers that examine how Early
American authors like Benjamin Franklin, Hector de Crevecouer
and Charles Brockden Brown wrote the wilderness as part of nation
building. Send abstracts to Timothy Strode, Nassau Community
College: strodet@ncc.edu
Top
Canadian
See also panels listed under:
American: Narratives
of Old Age / Native North American Literature
French: Francophonie
and Rebel Writers / Representations of Home in Francophone Women's
Autobiography
Popular Culture: Fairy
Tale Visions and (Re)Visions
History in Canadian and Quebec Literatures
How do recent texts published in English Canada and Quebec correspond
or diverge in their treatments of the past? Proposals are invited
that draw on any aspect of history (traditional or underrepresented;
local or international) and its treatment in Canadian and Quebec
literatures and/or literary criticism. Because this panel aims
in part to increase the profiles of Canadian and Quebec Studies
at NEMLA, a broad spectrum of topics is welcome. Individual papers
need not be comparative as the panel itself will be. Please send
500-word abstracts to Andrea Cabajsky at cabajsa@umoncton.ca.
A Stirring Vision: Transnationalism in the Contemporary
Canadian Novel Pico Iyer has claimed that "Michael
Ondaatje's The English Patient could be called the defining
work of modern Canadian fiction, not only because it won so many
readers world wide, but because it presents us with a stirring
vision of what Canada [...] might offer to a world in which more
and more people are on the move and motion itself has become
a kind of nation". My panel calls for papers that examine
representations of nomadism, diaspora and exile in contemporary
Canadian literature contextualized within the political economic
background underlying ‘post-national' discourses of globalization,
post-colonialism, ecocriticism and transnationalism. Send abstracts
to Vincent Guihan, Carleton University: vjguihan@connect.carleton.ca
Top
Caribbean
See also panels listed under:
Comparative Literature:
Plantation America / Reading Brathwaite and Walcott
/ Rejection and Acceptance in Literatures of Africa and the Caribbean
French:
From Negritude to Creolization
Spanish/Portuguese:
Masculinities in Cuban and Puerto Rican Fiction / Subversive
Texts in Latin America
Women’s Studies:
Representation of Sex and Sexuality in Recent Caribbean Women's
Writing
Comparative Literature
See also panels listed under:
American: Reading
in Yoruba / The Narrative Past: Historical Fiction from Past
to Present
French: Post-Colonial
Cannibalism in Literature and the Arts
German: Generational
Conflicts in Fiction and Memoir: Postwar to Present / Leaving
Narrow Boundaries: Travel Narratives by Swiss Authors / Switzerland
as Viewed from Without: Global Travel Narratives to Switzerland
Italian: Sicilia
and the Literature of Travel / The Long Italian Eighteenth
Century (1700-1815) and the Grand Tour
Pedagogy: Creative Writing
in the Foreign Language Classroom / Let's Start at the Beginning:
What Is Literature? / On-line Learning in Foreign Languages
Popular Culture:
Medicine and Poetry: The Poultice and the Pen
Women’s Studies:
Feminist Witchcraft in Literature, Film, and/or Social Movements
The Art of the Manifesto Many of the early-twentieth-century modernist
movements in literature and the visual arts propelled themselves
through a series of manifestos. Because an array of manifestos
exploded on the modernist scene simultaneously, we need to look
at how these forms interacted dynamically. How did the manifesto
cross national barriers and, most importantly, how did it "manifest"
itself in works of art? Papers should be submitted in English.
Interdisciplinary approaches are encouraged. Please submit your
paper proposal by e-mail to Dr. Monica Duchnowski: Duchnowmon@msn.com
The City in the Text: Setting as Signifier
This panel will explore the representation of cities in an individual
textand the way each presentation shapes a particular literary
text. The appearance of a particular city, an urban setting,
in a literary text signifies more its use to provide a geographical
and historic context. This panel asks presenters to raise the
question, "How can we theorize about the presence of the
city as a signifier in the text?" Texts may be from any
time period and genre and from any literary tradition. Abstracts
of 250 words (no papers) and questions should be addressed to
Marilyn Rye at: <mrye@fdu.edu>
or 973-443-8343. Email is preferred, but abstracts also may be
sent to Marilyn Rye, M-MS1-01, 285 Madison Ave., Madison, NJ
07940.
Character and Characterization in Narrative Literature
This panel will re-examine the status of character across a wide
range of genres and time periods in narrative literature; it
specifically proposes to explore the many meanings of character
(formal, moral, psychological, historical, etc.) by soliciting
papers that consider and/or utilize character as a conceptual
focus. Papers may present theoretical models of character, or
they may analyze the construction of character and/or methods
of characterization in particular narrative texts. Please email
300-word abstracts to Caroline Giordano (cbgiorda@umich.edu)
Culture Shock: Consumerism in Post-Communist Culture
Board-Sponsored Panel. The irony of the European revolutions
of 1989 is that the expansion of Western consumer culture, formerly
deemed "immoral" or "decadent" by communist
regimes, now appears as a rather ambiguous victory given that
both dissents and former official artists must struggle to survive
in the free market. A sufficient amount of time has elapsed for
body of work that addresses the paradoxical impact of consumer
culture on former communist states is beginning to emerge. This
panel invites papers that analyze how post-communist writers,
filmmakers and artists represent consumer culture (either positively
or negatively). Submit abstracts to Martha Kuhlman: mkuhlman@bryant.edu,
and Alexander Mihailovic: Alexander.Mihailovic@hofstra.edu.
The Dynamics of Governance and Poverty in Fourth World
Literatures This panel explores issues of Governance,
Economics, Racial Attitudes / Cultural Authenticity in Fourth
World writings. This exploration anchors itself on Colonial /
Postcolonial writings from Africa, Asia and Western countries
by Achebe, Wole Soyinka, Spivak, Edward Said, Salmon Rushdie,
Fanon, Buchi Emecheta, Ousmane Sembene, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Nurruddin
Farah, among others. This panel expands the term, Fourth World,
to include all marginalized poor living in the capitalist West.
Discussions will juxtapose Western norms and the traditional
modes of the Other with respect to governance, religion, family
and gender questions. Send abstracts to Dr. Rose Ure Mezu.
Morgan State University: Roseyure@aol.com
Earth, Air, Water, Fire: Twentieth Century Poetics
of Simplicity Much of the best known and most widely
admired poetry of the last hundred years flaunts its bookishness,
its elaborate and often thrilling systems of allusion and symbology,
its theoretical sophistication. This session aims at description,
investigation, assessment—at appreciation, in all its senses—of
strains of modern and contemporary poetry built significantly
on more direct and basic experience of life on our planet. The
ancient version of the elements in the title serves as a kind
of shorthand for such a perspective, but the panel is not only
open to, but actively encourages other constellations of "simplicity."
Send proposals, e-mail preferred, to William Waddell, St. John
Fisher College, bwaddell@sjfc.edu.
Ecocriticism and The Animal Other Co-sponsored
by the Association of the Study of Literature and the Environment.
Theorist Cary Wolfe claims the question of the animal is "perhaps
the central problematic for contemporary culture and theory."
This panel seeks papers that address the presence of the animal
in literary, filmic, and other cultural forms. Proposals energized
by interdisciplinary and cultural studies methodologies are especially
welcome. Also welcome are proposals that use the location of
the animal to theorize new modes of ecocritical practice.
Proposals should be 500-750 words. Send proposal by email to
Nicole Merola: nmerola@risd.edu.
Exile and the Narrative Imagination The session
will examine texts by any exiled writer from any country, dealing
with the literary representation of exile. Electronic submissions
to Agnieszka Gutthy, Southeastern Louisiana University:
agutthy@selu.edu
Exit Strategy and Narrative Construction This
panel will explore the concept of exit strategy, not as a business
or military term, but as played out in literature. Insofar as
narratives presuppose a beginning and an end, applying this concept
to narratives can provide insight into their rhetorical implementation.
Panelists may address any of the following: How writers de/construct
their plot based on the outcome? What narrative or rhetorical
devices are used? How narrators map their own exit? To what extent
an exit strategy is a form of fallacy and creates the illusion
of control? Please send proposals to Abbes Maazaoui at maazaoui@lincoln.edu.
The "Garden of Memory" -The Narrative, the
City and the Past in Orhan Pamuk The panelists should
address different aspects of Orhan Pamuk's narrative style, transcendence
of city, memoirs and the self. Nilgun Anadolu Okur, Temple University:
anadolu@temple.edu
The Global Turn in Literary Studies
This panel invites papers that theorize and/or examine the global
turn in literary studies, particularly in the wake of postcolonial
studies. Papers might address both how globalization studies
has re-shaped the literary and what the literary contributes
to our understandings of the global. Please send 300-500 word
paper abstracts, preferably by e-mail attachment, to: Omaar Hena,
omaarhena@virginia.edu
Modernism and the Scene of Writing
This panel, by focusing on representations of writing, suggests
that modernist dramatizations of writing, of "being text,"
signal moments of "becoming modern," of a particular
character or persona engaged directly in a modernist project—and
their successes, failures, and/or refusals reflect the possibilities,
limits, and consternations of the attempt. The "writing
scene" is a particularly generative analytical site for
thinking about literary modernism across national, racial, political,
and other boundaries because it confronts directly the problems
of applying literary technique to the chaos of ‘modern'
life. Please email 250-500 word abstracts to Jeff O’Neal,
jso18@columbia.edu by
September 1.
Multicultural Poetry Reading
Creative Session. Poets writing in English, French, Italian and
Spanish are invited to submit sample of their work for
this multicultural reading. Noelle Carruggi, New School
University: noelle_carruggi@yahoo.com
Plantation America This panel invites papers
concerned with any aspect of plantation and post-plantation literatures
from South America to the American South. Send abstracts in body
of email to Matthew Lessig, SUNY Cortland, lessigm@cortland.edu.
Postcolonialism and Physics While postcolonial readings of modernity seem
to expose classical physics as a colonial discourse, parallel
developments in modern physics have also denaturalized classical
concepts of space, time, matter, and energy, prompting interpretations
of the physical universe congruent with pre-colonial cosmologies.
What might be gained by mutually situating postcolonial theory
and physics? This interdisciplinary panel invites papers exploring
the intersections of postcolonialism and physics and their impact
on knowledge and culture. Send 250-word abstracts to Justin Hayes,
Quinnipiac University/ Yale University: justin.hayes@quinnipiac.edu
Psycho-Traumatology and 19th Century Authorship
This panel proposes to examine the connection between the real-life
trauma of nineteenth century authors and their body of work.
In what ways did their childhood and/or adolescent traumas inform
and shape 19th century writings? How much narrative distance
is there between the traumatized author and his/her work? What
are the various traumas that serve to influence writers of the
nineteenth century? Possible trauma topics include: Death and/or
Suicide and/or Murder; Poverty; Incest; Physical and/or Emotional
Abuse; Parental Insanity; Personal Insanity; Abandonment; Addiction;
Other. Jillmarie Murphy, Schenectady College: murphyj@gw.sunysccc.edu
Reading Brathwaite and Walcott This panel
on Brathwaite and Walcott offers an opportunity to analyze and
evaluate critical trends and positions on both of these major
poets, including the persistent tendency to represent them as
manifesting opposing cultural, political and aesthetic positions.
Papers should be conversant with at least some of the important
trends in criticism of one or both poets,and might address them
in the context of criticism of anglophone Caribbean literature
and of anglophone world poetry. Please contact Dr Elaine Savory,
savorye@newschool.edu
with paper proposals of 500 words.
Rejection and Acceptance in Literatures of Africa
and the Caribbean A session panel on Literature of Africa
and the Caribbean proposes evaluations of themes of rejection
and acceptance in the most expansive sense. Thematic conceptions
might include, but are certainly not limited to, the following:
examinations of literary text(s) in connection with Bhabha's
concept of ambivalence; examples of filiation/affiliation in
African and Caribbean literary texts; notions of literary self-development
and/or selfhood; cultural/linguistic appropriation in literature;
Négritude movement; Bhabha's concept of hybridity in literature.
Please send proposal abstracts or completed papers for this session
to Dr. Walter Collins, University of South Carolina, Lancaster:
collinsw@sc.edu
Russian and Slavic Literatures: Continuities and Traditions
This panel welcomes abstracts on any aspect of Russian
and other Slavic literatures. Submit abstracts to: Francoise
Rosset, frosset@wheatonma.edu
Tropes in the Gender Discourse of Modern East Asian
Literature, Film and Other Cultural Works Exploring
modernity in modern East Asia from a gender discourse perspective
involves understanding construction of self-consciousness from
the newly-emerged community of women writers, filmmakers and
artists. Proposals might address issues such
as: How was urbanization / capitalization incorporated into the
construction of female identity through visual culture? How were
the national cultural legacies at once preserved and subverted
in the re-definition of femininity? How did female writers and
artists assert their roles in the gender reconstruction and cultural
renovation in this period? Jing Huang & Haihong Yang;
University of Iowa; haihong-yang@uiowa.edu,
jing-huang-1@uiowa.edu
Top
Creative Writing
See also panels listed under:
Comparative Literature:
Multicultural Poetry Reading
Pedagogy: Poetry
and Pedagogy: Techniques to Tantalize Students with the Genre
of Poetry
Popular Culture:
Breaking the Line: The Art of the Lyric Essay, False Memoirs:
The Intersection of Fiction and Memory in Contemporary Short
Fiction
Top
English / British
See also panels listed under:
American: Literature,
Readers and Democracy
Gay/Lesbian: Joe Orton
and the New Queer Historicism
Popular Culture: Fairy
Tale Visions and (Re)Visions / Food for Thought: Culinary, Literary
and Cultural Views of Food in Literature, Film, Theater / Literature,
Narrative and Medicine
Women’s Studies: The
Politics of Humor: Women and Satire in the 20th-Century
/ The Transatlantic New Woman
Contemporary Scottish Fiction and Film Contemporary
Scottish Fiction and Film. Proposals and completed papers are
solicited for any aspect of Scottish fiction and film since 1990.
Particularly welcome are papers that deal with the following:
film adaptations, the continuing viability of a distinctive Scottish
fiction and/or cinema, the persistence of old concerns and the
emergence of new voices and forms. Send abstracts or papers to
Robert Morace at rmorace@daemen.edu.
The Creative Trance in Nineteenth-Century British
Literature This panel will examine the discourse
of spontaneous literary creation in nineteenth-century British
poetry and fiction. Paper proposals are invited on topics including
but not limited to mesmerism/animal magnetism/artificial somnambulism,
opium use, improvisational poetics, and automatic writing. Papers
exploring the relationships between these themes and issues of
authorial agency, voice, gender, and reputation are particularly
welcome. Suggested authors include but are not limited to Coleridge,
Mary Robinson, Mary Shelley, Letitia E. Landon (LEL), DeQuincey,
Dickens, Wilkie Collins, Sheridan LeFanu, Yeats, and Georgie
Hyde-Lees. Please submit 250-500 word abstracts to Anne DeLong
at amdb@lehigh.edu.
The False God "Favourable Chance" or "Lady
Luck?": The Discourse on Gambling in England Gambling has existed in British literature
since Chaucer and before, yet the discourse on gambling exploded
in Victorian England. Why was gambling such a divisive topic
in the 19th century? High church, low church, secular elite,
middle class: each faction opposed games of chance, but for widely
disparate reasons. Where did the conflict begin? Why did the
debate erupt in the Victorian age? Where has it led since? Papers
could approach gambling from literary, historical, cultural,
social, and/or philosophical perspectives. Submit abstracts to
Chad Cripe <cripec@student.gvsu.edu>
Ghosts of the Nineteenth Century Papers
sought that take nineteenth-century ghost stories as their major
focus. Possible topics include the ghost story's engagement with
religious and scientific movements such as Spiritualism, the
popularity of the séance, the formation of the Society
for Psychical Research, or any aspect of the science/religion
debate. Papers could also address the place of the ghost story
in a canonized writer's oeuvre (how do ghost stories by Dickens
or James, for example, help shape or complicate our perception
of these writers?), or the reception of ghost stories in popular
culture (why, for example, did the ghost story become an integral
part of Christmas celebrations?). Email 300-500 word abstracts
to Jen Cadwallader at cadwall@unc.edu.
Intersections of Text and Image in William Blake
Explorations of the combination of text and image in the oeuvre
of William Blake, whether in illuminated poem, book illustrations,
commercial work or unpublished manuscripts by Blake. Proposals
by e-mail preferred, to Josephine A. McQuail, Box 5053, Tennessee
Technological University, Cookeville TN 38505 ph. (931) 372-6207;
FAX (931) 372-3484; jmcquail@tntech.edu
J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S. Lewis The
J.R.R. Tolkien/C.S. Lewis panel addresses all aspects of the
works and lives of both authors. Recent interest in them invites
examination of their impact as men and writers on twentieth-century
literature and thought. Papers are welcome that take as their
subject film adaptations of their fictions. William J.
Mistichelli, Penn State Abington: wxm3@psu.edu
John Milton Board-Sponsored.
This panel invites papers on any aspect of the works of John
Milton. Send abstracts to William Moeck, Nassau Community
College: moeckw@ncc.edu
Mary Shelley and Her Contemporaries This
panel will focus on the works of Mary Shelley and encourage participants
to identify the ways in which Shelley makes evident her own ideological
position-as "proper lady" and/or confident woman writer-as
she engages with the writings of her contemporaries, hopefully
discussing both her better known and her lesser known works,
and exploring the complex relationship between her works and
the writings of her contemporaries. Papers examining her writings
in modes other than the novel and short story are particularly
encouraged. Proposals should be submitted as MS Word attachments
to L. Adam Mekler, lmekler@jewel.morgan.edu.
Modernism and the Death of Consciousness
During the first part of the twentieth century, the emerging
fields of psychology and neuroscience altered traditional
philosophical conceptions of mind. However, as the mind became
increasingly embodied in the brain and fragmented nervous system,
many prominent thinkers began to debate the existence of a unifying
consciousness. This panel will explore how the "death of
consciousness" affects important Modernist themes.
Please e-mail 300 word abstacts to Deric Corlew <djcorlew@email.unc.edu>
Negotiating Homeplace in the Nineteenth Century
During the English and American industrial eras (1840-1910),
homelessness often implied a lack of opportunity, a lack of identity,
a lack of acceptance. How did these individuals negotiate their
space (or lack thereof)? How did their lack of housing aid or
hinder their own development and position in society? What spaces
did they transform, and in what ways did they manage to maintain,
create, or reconstitute their homes? Papers for this session
should address representations of home and homelessness in literature
written between 1840 and 1910. Send abstracts to Grace Wetzel,
English Dept., University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208.
The Novels of Jane Austen Board-Sponsored. This panel solicits
papers that examines the novels of Jane Austen. Send abstracts
to Robert Lougy, Pennsylvania State University: rxl1@psu.edu
Odd Woman Out: The Spinster in 20th Century British
Novels George Gissing's 1893 novel The Odd
Women dramatized the plight of women of modest means rendered
"superfluous" by a dearth of men. This panel seeks
to explore the evolution of the spinster in British novels beyond
the turn of the century. Possible topics: Noncanonical
spinsters; Traditions of spinsterhood (the legacies of
Austen, Gissing and others); Alternative "families"
and communities; Lesbianism; The spinster novel's relationship
to realism or modernism; The costs and consolations of spinsterhood;
Spinsterhood and feminism; Spinsterhood and the postcolonial
British novel Please send 300-500 word abstracts to Dana Shiller
at dshiller@washjeff.edu
Radical Concepts/Radicalized Subjectivities: Re-Reading
Reality in British Fiction from 1969 Beyond the
crises of the death of the author and the text, from 1969 the
British novel has developed innovative practices, radicalizing
our linguistic and fictional renditions of reality itself. An
underlying reality principle recurs, a legacy from modernist
fiction and its ambiguous relationship with the literary past.
Formal and conceptual ideas related fiction to reality producing
a plethora of meanings, especially in terms of marginalized subjectivities,
issues of gender, class concerns, and various social and aesthetic
ideologies. The panel reconsiders how a residuum of mimesis and
truth underpins this evolving narrative practice. Send
abstracts to Philip Tew: philip.tew@brunel.ac.uk
Reverse Colonization in Victorian Fiction This
panel will examine the colonial adventure setting within the
very streets of London, including fiction that describes London
in the same manner in which the colonies are described and addresses
the fear of the colonies "coming home" and taking over
London. A variety of approaches is welcome in discussing the
Victorian concerns of progress and decline. Please send 250-word
abstracts via email to Jaime Jordan at jlj048000@utdallas.edu.
Romantic Landscapes Proposals
are sought for papers dealing with the relation between landscape
and literary works during the Romantic era (1789-1832). Of particular
interest are papers that examine literary works in relation to
other accounts of landscapes, such as maps, tour guides, surveys,
travelogues, court documents, other poems, etc. Please send 250-300
word abstracts to Frank Duba by e-mail to Frank.Duba@millersville.edu.
Shakespeare and His Contemporaries
Board-Sponsored. This panel solicits papers that examine Elizabethan
and Jacobean writing. Send abstracts to Robert Lougy, Pennsylvania
State University: rxl1@psu.edu
Subversive Masochisms The panel "Subversive Masochisms"
invites papers that challenge normative and pathologizing readings
of masochism. Papers should address literary and/or cultural
works from 1800 to the present day. Inquiries aper proposals
of between 200 and 300 words should be submitted by email, to
Robin Chamberlain, at gotta.be.adored@gmail.com.
Taking Sides: Reassessing the Great Victorian Debates
This panel seeks to reassess Victorian intellectual
debates as they are embodied in the conflicts of specific individuals.
Presenters are encouraged to address this question: does current
understanding of a host of a variety of social and theoretical
issues confirm or militate against the conventional wisdom that
has traditionally declared specific parties in these nineteenth-century
disputes the "winners?" Where our contemporary views
of who emerged victorious from these intellectual battles differ
from those prevalent in previous generations, what influences
have helped to shape both our present perspectives and those
of our critical predecessors? Abstracts of 250-500 words should
be submitted via e-mail to Michael DiMassa (michael.dimassa@yale.edu).
Teaching Medieval Women This panel solicits papers that address the
use of works about the lives of medieval women in modern classrooms,
considering issues of literacy and women's education. Susannah
Chewning, Union County College: Chewning@ucc.edu
Restoration Drama Board-Sponsored.
From the comedy of manners to the heroic drama, theatre in the
latter part of the 17th century revived with a flourish. This
panel seeks submissions on new critical and theoretical approaches
to Restoration and early 18th-century drama. Please address inquiries
and submissions to Rita Bode, email: rbode@trentu.ca.
Victorian Landscape Descriptions
The Victorian Landscape Descriptions panel invites abstracts
of papers which discuss landscape descriptions of the Victorian
period, fictional or actual, in prose or verse. Papers should
address one or more of the period's cultural issues and concerns:
aesthetics/ ethics/ exploration/ psychology/ religion/ science/
social and political theory. Send abstracts via email to: Christie
Harner, c-harner@northwestern.edu
Weird Science in Nineteenth-Century Literature Weird
Science in Nineteenth-Century Literature will explore the significance
of unconventional or non-traditional science (including medicine)
in texts of the period. Examples might include, but are not limited
to: phrenology, mesmerism, alchemy and homeopathy. Send abstracts
of no more than 250 words by email to: Dr. Kristin Sanner, Dept.
of English, Mansfield University, ksanner@mansfield.edu
Top
Film
See also panels listed under:
English/British:
Contemporary Scottish Fiction and Film
French: French Cinéma
Today; Post-Colonial Cannibalism in Literature and the Arts
German: Representations
of Travel in Post-1989 German Literature and Film
Italian: Paper to
Screen and Back Again in Italian Film / Roberto Benigni's Cinema
and the Blend of Comedy and Tragedy / Somatizing the Regime:
Fascism as Sickness in the Films of the 70s
Popular Culture:
Violence, Technology, and the Cold War Domestic
Spanish/Portuguese:
Globalization and Its Discontents in Contemporary Spanish Film
/ Latin American/Latino Cinema: (Re)presentations of Identity
Critically Reading the Films of Todd Solondz
Beginning with the release of Welcome to the Dollhouse and
continuing through Palindromes, Todd Solondz has produced
some of the most provocative representations of contemporary,
and mostly suburban, life—often concerning the marginal
and/or controversial sites of the adolescent loser, the pedophile,
sex and race, and abortion. Looking beyond the responses that
Solondz's films either represent "truth" or are simply
"hip posturing," this panel seeks theoretically informed
papers that explore any aspect of Solondz's work. All theoretical
perspectives are welcome. Please submit 250-word abstracts via
email attachment (preferably Word) to Tyler Kessel, kessetyl@hvcc.edu
The Disintegration of Imagination: Examining Richard
Kelly's Donnie Darko - Director's Cut Roundtable.
Richard Kelly's Donnie Darko (2001) was a thought-provoking
triumph for this first-time director. In 2004, Kelly unveiled
his director's cut. Bloated with an excess of information, Kelly
stripped Darko of its previous "magic." Why
did Kelly elect to release this uninspired vision to his fans?
Can the film recover from the damage caused by the director's
cut? Moreover, while this release reveals much about the director,
it is also reveals much about modern audiences. This panel will
address both the uncanny success of the original film and the
grotesque director's cut. What do they reveal about the current
state of film-art? About society? Please send proposals for this
roundtable discussion to Erica Joan Dymond, ejd3@lehigh.edu
Feminist Film and Theory Board-Sponsored. This panels solicits
papers on feminist film and/or feminist film theory. Send
abstracts to Lisa DeTora, Lafayette College: detoral@lafayette.edu
The Image of Women in the Films of Hitchcock &
Fellini: Comparison and Contrast Explore the images of women in the films of
Hitchcock and Fellini: REBECCA, NOTORIOUS, PSYCHO, THE
BIRDS, MARNIE,FRENZY; LA STRADA, LA DOLCE VITA, NIGHTS OF CABIRIA,
JULIET OF SPIRITS, CITY OF WOMEN. All approaches welcome:
gender, class, design, comparative, religious, societal,psycho-analytical,
biographic, or other -- including personal response. While Papers
are expected to be of a professional nature, a true spirit of
informality is a mainstay of this panel. Must adhere strictly
to a 12 minute reading, leaving time for audience discussion.
eMail abstract of 250 words, plus CV, to co-chairs Vincenzo Bollettino
and Theodore Price: pricet@mail.montclair.edu
& bollettinov@mail.montclair.edu
The Postcolonial Youth Film This panel will
investigate the ways the emerging media of postcolonial cinema
focuses on the notion of the adolescent, and how these depictions
of the youthful body, within the genre of the postcolonial film,
can be seen as developing a dialogue which runs against the grain
of both the American/European youth film and diasporic film in
Britain, as well presenting the adolescent body as a mode of
mediation with the concepts of nationalization and globalization,
working within and against the already constructed images of
youth produced in the West. Send 300-word abstracts to Rebecca
Fine Romanow at rfexile@aol.com
Top
French
See also panels listed under:
Canadian: History
in Canadian and Quebec Literatures
20th Century French Theatre Board-Sponsored. French theatre at the
mid-twentieth century--from playwrights as diverse as Anouilh,
Sartre and Ionesco--provided provocative, innovative and poetic
responses to major cultural and political shifts. Papers
are invited that explore any aspect of these works and their
legacy to the world stage. Send abstracts in body of email to Northeast.MLA@gmail.com,
with "French Theatre" in subject line.
Francophonie and Rebel Writers Does
"Francophonie" still exist? Some young African writers
seem to answer "no." While Nimrod, a Chadian-born writer
says: "a Francophone writer does not exist" the Franco-Djiboutian,
speaking in the name of the new generation of Africans writing
in French states: "We are from no Francophone chapel."
Are these statements symptomatic of identity crisis or is it
an act of rebellion of the former colonized? Either way, they
introduce a fresh look at the African literary landscape. This
panel explores these interrogations focusing on the opportunities
and challenges of such rebellion. Send abstracts to Moussa Sow: sow@tcnj.edu
French and Francophone Women Writers of the Eighteenth
Century French and Francophone women writers played
a very important role in the Eighteenth century. In their novels
they express their resistance to arranged marriage and to the
silence with which women were supposed to accept their roles.
The goal of this panel is to review the work of these French
women writers and the role their books played creating a political,
social consciousness and stirring of new ideas. Send abstracts
to: Dr. Zoe Petropoulou, St. John's University, Dept. of Languages
and Literatures, 8000 Utopia Parkway, Jamaica, NY 11439; petropoz@stjohns.edu.
French Cinéma Today Papers are invited that explore the work of
contemporary French filmmakers, with a particular interest in
new female directors. Lisa DeTora, Lafayette College: detoral@lafayette.edu
From Negritude to Creolization Board-Sponsored
Panel. This panel invites papers that explore theories
of identity in the French Caribbean. Send abstracts to
Carinne Mardorossian, SUNY-Buffalo: cm27@buffalo.edu
The Legacy of Victor Hugo. Board-Sponsored.
This panel invites papers (in French or in English) on any aspect
of the works or influence of Victor Hugo. Send abstracts (250-500
words) to Kitty C. Dean, Nassau Community College: kittydean@earthlink.net
Marguerite Duras: "Je suis créole"
dit-elle Board-Sponsored. Duras' oeuvre made a legend of the author's
Indochinese childhood and the Durasian aesthetics is often reminiscent
of calligraphy. Papers are invited that will address aspects
of creolity in Duras' poetics (space, rythms, paradox) and exploration
of "being in the world." Noelle Carruggi, New
School University: noelle_Carruggi@yahoo.com
A Paradox of Identities: Reading Difference in French
Fiction and Film If French identity is founded
on the principles of Republican universalism, what place does
"difference" have in contemporary French society? What
are the representations of difference in recent French fiction
and film? How does cinematic and literary fiction wrestle with
the seeming incompatibility between French identity and the expression
of gendered, cultural, ethnic, sexual identities? Send 1-page
abstracts to Marjorie Salvodon: msalvodo@suffolk.edu
Poètes du Maghreb et du Moyen-Orient
War and political conflict have led many poets from the Arabic
World to live in exile in France - among others, Andrée
Chédid and Venus Khoury-Ghata (Lebanon), Abdellatif Laâbi
(Morocco), and many more. Papers are invited that explore the
work of poets from the Middle East and Northern Africa. Noelle
Carruggi, New School University: noelle_Carruggi@yahoo.com
Post-Colonial Cannibalism in Literature and the Arts
The term ‘cannibalism' has repeatedly been
used by imperial Europe in an effort to distinguish itself from
the subjects of its colonial expansion and justify the colonization
of territories. Although this term was in the past used to construct
differences between colonizers and colonized it is now used to
deconstruct these differences. This panel will explore the construction
of such a concept and how it has been used in literature and
the arts to draw new boundaries between "us" and "other"
and renegotiate identities. Please send abstract to Magali Compan
(mxcomp@wm.edu)
Rébellion, passion et transgression dans les
romans de Maryse Condé Roundtable For this roundtable
we are looking for presentations in French or English leading
to a discussion of the themes and poetics of rebellion, passion
and transgression in the novels of Maryse Condé..Noelle
Carruggi, New School University: noelle_Carruggi@yahoo.com
Representations of Home in Francophone Women's Autobiography
How have Francophone women writers represented 'home' in their
autobiographical writing? Is home an idealized entity, or something
to conceal or reject, and how is this concept articulated? This
panel welcomes any approach to both 'home' and autobiography.
Please send abstracts to Natalie Edwards at natalie.edwards@wagner.edu
Top
Gay / Lesbian
See also panels listed under:
American: Whitman
and Race
German: Contemporary
Queer German Culture
Before the Foucaultian Divide: Queer Cultures, 1780-1870
Despite the increasing acceptance of LBGT/Q studies within academia,
much of the research within this field centers on late Victorian
society and post-Wildean articulations of gender and sexuality.
However, scholars in earlier periods (Bray, Halperin, Trumbach,
Haggerty, Elfenbein, Lacquer) have begun to identify alternative
sexual communities before what may be loosely termed the Foucaultian
divide. In an effort to stimulate scholarship on pre-Foucaultian
queer cultures and the history of sexuality, this panel welcomes
papers exploring queer genders, bodies, and sexualities during
the period preceding the genesis of the term "homosexuality"
(roughly 1780-1870). Email proposals to Nowell Marshall: Nowell.Marshall@email.ucr.edu.
Joe Orton and the New Queer Historicism
The panel welcomes investigations into the life and plays of
British dramatist Joe Orton, with a particular emphasis on historicist
approaches. Inspired by recent contributions to GLBT studies,
from critical theory — Michael Lucey's translation of Eribon's
Insult and the Making of the Gay Self —to literary
biography with Neil McKenna's The Secret Life of Oscar Wilde
— to cultural history in Matt Houlbrook's Queer London,
the panel hopes specifically to reassess and expand on Orton's
legacy in light of new research into the experience of the homosexual
male from the fin de siècle to 1967. Dan Burns,
Greensboro College: dburns@gborocollege.edu
Post-Millennial Queer Pop Culture and the Construction
of Community This panel seeks papers that explore
recent queer pop culture (including tv, film, art, comics, porn,
music, theater, the internet) and how this pop culture cultivates
and/or constructs community. To what extent do these pop culture
products make and/or perpetuate assumptions about queer community?
To what extent do they reflect the evolution of a queer community?
Papers may examine representations of queer life in mainstream
popular culture as long as the papers focus on the depiction
of queer community. Please email 250-300 word abstracts to Andrew
Schopp at schoppa@ncc.edu.
What Can You Do With a "Handsome Sailor"?:
(Re)Reading Beautiful Young Men in American Literature
The concept of "the handsome sailor" is probably most
easily recognized in Herman Melville's "Billy Budd."
The archtype pervades the canon of American literature, problematizing,
challenging and queering heteronormative paradigms of literary
representation. This panel seeks to explore iterations of the
archtype and how it informs a broader contextual understanding
of other American literary concepts such as R.W.B. Lewis' The
American Adam. Sponsored by the LGBT Caucus. Submissions
and questions may be sent as electronic attachments in MSWord
to Donald P. Gagnon at DonnEng@aol.com.
Writing the Queer Self: Sex, Gender, and the Creation
of Space in Queer Life Writing This panel seeks
to examine the roles that the inclusion of queer sex and gender
non-conformity in LGBT autobiographies, diaries, and memoirs
play in creating a unique rhetorical space for queer bodies.
Additionally, this panel will look at the ways that specifically
queer life writing alters the landscapes of literary biographies
of LGBT authors, and the interpretations of their works. Possible
topics might include, among other authors, a reading of place
that queer sex holds in Joe Orton's diaries, his creation of
a hyper-masculine and hyper-sexual persona, and how that influences
John Lahr's biography, and current interpretations of Orton's
plays. Send 300 word abstract with a short C.V. to Damion
Clark at drclark@umd.edu
Top
German
18th Century Ghosts: The Spirit of the Past in Modern
German Culture The panel invites contributions on any
and all aspects of "eighteenth-century ghosts" and/or
their modern repercussions in 20th century culture. Ghosts can
be understood in the most literal or most figurative sense. Examples
may include, but are not restricted to: reprsentation of ghosts
as anticipation of modern anxieties/technologies/ethical issues;
the lasting impact of eighteenth-century ideas (nation, community,
Europe) and their perceived or real crisis in contemporary culture;
the "abuse" of the eighteenth-century (i.e. between
1933-45; East Germany; West Germany).Interdisciplinary and comparative
aspects; literature and film; multiple panels possible.
Birgit Tautz, Bowdoin College, btautz@bowdoin.edu
Bridging the Gap: Integrating the Teaching of Language
and Literature Many undergraduate foreign
language programs maintain a divide between their lower-level
"language courses" and their advanced "literature"
courses. This divide is premised on the assumption that before
students can approach literary texts they have to "master"
the language. This argument ignores students' cognitive and linguistic
needs and thus prevents them to perform at a linguistically and
cognitively sophisticated level by failing to provide students
with the advanced linguistic tools necessary to explore and discuss
literary texts. This panel seeks papers that investigate theoretical,
methodological, and practical approaches to the integration of
literature and language in upper-level content-driven courses.
Please send paper proposals to Peter Weise, Boston University
(weisep@bu.edu).
Contemporary Queer German Culture This interdisciplinary
GLBT panel proposes to explore queer relations to history, memory,
im/migrant subjectivity, East and West German identity, and self-representation,
as well as other thematic interests pertaining to contemporary
queer culture. Questions might include: What defines trans self-representation?
What role do political and historical contexts play in identity
formation? How do cultural clashes play out in the queer scene?
In what way is sexual difference undermined by staged cultural
manifestations? We welcome abstracts that address any aspects
of queer culture both in the German-speaking context and by internationally
engaged German-speaking artists. Submit one-page abstracts to
Christina Wegel, wegel@email.unc.edu
Down and Out in the New Germany: Social Class and
the Marginal in Fiction, Film and Nonfiction
This panel seeks to address issues of material and symbolic marginality
as described in recent films and /or fiction. Groups like immigrants,
gays, the old, or teenagers were ostracized or placed in marginal
categories before the fall of the wall, but this process has
become more evident in a globalized economy. How does recent
fiction or film describe their living spaces, everyday practices,
consciousness and tactics? Which world views are criticized,
presented or reinscribed, also looking at nonfiction sources
like political journalism or sociological studies ? Which cultural
practices might be said to emerge as resistant or transformative?
Send abstract to Helga Druxes, Williams College: hdruxes@williams.edu
Generational Conflicts in Fiction and Memoir: Postwar
to Present This panel examines works, fictional and
autobiographical, that depart from the model of the 1970s/1980s
as illustrated by such texts as Christoph's Meckel's Suchbild:
Ueber meinen Vater (1980), which proto-typically is directed
by the son at the father and his Nazi past. Later works extend
that intergenerational inquiry into the past to other relations.
This panel would aim to illuminate the ongoing intersection of
the private and the public among generations, from different
familial perspectives, in the postwar period to the present.
Send proposals to: Neil H. Donahue; Dept. of Comparative
Literature; Calkins Hall 322, 107 Hofstra University; Hempstead,
NY 11549
A Global Sense of Place? Homelessness and Travel in
the Age of Globalization This panel wants to explore
the alleged feeling of homelessness prevalent in recent German
literature, in particular of the younger generation, in connection
to the ever growing impact globalization has on the German nation.
Thus, the question arises whether homelessness and the constant
urge to travel are indicative of an occurring change in the perception
of the German idea of Heimat – a concept so dearly cherished
by Germans throughout the ages – as well as in the German
identity formation. Please submit a one page abstract (300 words)
as a Microsoft Word document to: eichegabi@hotmail.com
Housing and Dwelling in 19th Century German Literature
Papers related to dwelling, housing, and architecture in 19th
century German literature welcome. Possible topics include domesticity,
haunted houses, architecture and philosophy, homelessness, transient
figures, the uncanny, and the private home as replication of
the patriarchal state. Please e-mail abstracts in English or
German to Len Cagle (cagle@lycoming.edu)
Leaving Narrow Boundaries: Travel Narratives by Swiss
Authors This panel explores travel narratives by Swiss
Authors. "Why do we leave the loveliest country in the World?
What urges us to go east and west?" asked Annemarie Schwarzenbach,
an adventurous and troubled writer who traveled to Afghanistan
and India by car in the 1930s and 1950s. – "It's the
longing for the absolute, yes, this wish must be the impetus
of every traveler," she wrote. What are then the textual
and inter-textual results by Swiss writers who have traveled
the world for many centuries? Margrit Zinggeler, Eastern
Michigan University: mzinggele@emich.edu
Memory and Nation: Remembering the Past in Post-Unified
Germany Paper submissions are invited for a session
on "Memory and Nation: Remembering the Past in Post-Unified
Germany." This panel addresses literary and filmic responses
to questions of remembering the past in the period of post-unification.
Topics include the representation and reevaluation of World War
II, public and personal memories, generational differences, and
collective and transnational mourning processes. Please send
submissions as a Word document in an e-mail attachment to Laurel
Cohen-Pfister (lcpfiste@gettysburg.edu).
Problems of the Globalized World as Reflected in German
Literature in the New Millennium This topic may be approached
from various perspectives such as the influx of third world refugees,
poverty, terrorism, religious conflicts within the multicultural
society, anti-war sentiment, and anti-Americanism. Send abstracts
as word attachments in e-mails, fax, or snail mail. Barbara
Mabee; 418 Wilson Hall; Dept. of Mod. Langs. & Lits.; Oakland
University; Rochester, MI 48309; mabee@oakland.edu
Representations of Travel in Post-1989 German Literature
and Film This panel will explore travel as a trope
and as allegorical and figurative representations in German-language
literature and film since 1989. How do literature and film figure
travel as a response to and critical engagement with theories
of movement across space and time? What is the relationship between
economic globalization, transnational mobility and dis/continuities
in aesthetic representations of travel? Themes might include
migration/immigration/emigration, exile, travel in reunified
Germany, the traveler's gaze, travel and imprisonment/freedom,
travel and memory, travel and ironic distance, and travel as
a figure for experience and estrangement. 1-page abstracts to
Maria Grewe, Columbia University (msg52@columbia.edu).
Switzerland as Viewed from Without: Global Travel
Narratives to Switzerland This panel welcomes proposals
about travel narratives and reflections on Switzerland and Swiss
culture written by international (non-Swiss born) authors. Comparative
studies are most welcome. Richard R. Ruppel, University
of Wisconsin - Stevens Point: rruppel@uwsp.edu
Talking about a Revolution This panel seeks to explore how German literature,
film, and art represent dissent, protest, or revolutions throughout
the centuries. It is also interested in investigating aesthetic
and creative developments that in themselves represent revolutions
or that inspired revolutionary change. In particular, this panel
is interested in papers that discuss the theoretical and the
practical implications of the intersections of the cultural and
the political realm or that connect historical revolutionary
moments with contemporary protests against globalization. Please
submit one page abstracts to Susanne Rinner at rinners@georgetown.edu.
Weimar Remakes Papers sought that examine
remakes, adaptations and citations of Weimar textual and visual
culture in postwar German film. How do images of Weimar –
as utopian or dystopian moments in modern German history –
get recycled after WWII, and what sort of memory work do such
intertextual dialogues perform? How do changes in both the medium
and industry of film shape postwar approaches to Weimar material?
Michael Cowan: michael.cowan@mcgill.ca
Writing Before and After the Fall of the Wall
This panel explores how authors' writing strategies changed after
the fall of the Berlin Wall. What topics and narrative devices
were prominent in their pre-Wende texts? How are the "Wende"
and the process of unification portrayed? Are they still major
topics in the second decade after unification or is there a tendency
to leave East Germany behind? Send abstracts to Axel Hildebrandt
and Karolin Machtans: ahildebr@german.umass.edu,
machtans@sas.upenn.edu
Top
Italian
Anna Maria Ortese: L'anima e l'esilio
La sessione si propone di esplorare i diversi aspetti della poetica
di Anna Maria Ortese: la prosa, la poesia, la scrittura giornalistica.
Particolare attenzione verrà dedicata al tema dell'Esilio
nelle sue molteplici implicazioni e connotazioni (esilio dalla
patria, esilio dalla lingua) che informa l'opera intera di questa
grande scrittrice del Novecento. Please send abstracts in English
or Italian to Cosetta Seno Reed, cr68@georgetown.edu.
Dante and the Middle Ages We invite paper submissions focused on works
by Dante or other medieval Italian authors. Papers can be in
Italian or English, with a maximum length at presentation of
15-20 minutes. Send abstracts by e-mail to: jcozzarelli@ithaca.edu
or by standard mail to: Julia Cozzarelli, 414 Muller Faculty
Center, Ithaca College, Ithaca NY 14850.
Food and Eating: Ecofeminist Perspectives in 19th-Century
Italian & European Literature This panel examines the role of food, eating,
and hunger in 19th-century Italian and European literature from
an Ecofeminist perspective and asks how these motifs, for example,
in Collodi's Pinocchio or Shelley's Frankenstein, elide gender
or species constructs and reflect the construction of nation.
How do food paradigms reinforce or challenge the androcentric
and anthropocentric thinking of dominant culture during industrialization
and unification? Various theoretical approaches are welcome;
Ecofeminist interpretations are preferred. David Del Principe,
Montclair State University. Send one-page abstract via e-mail:
delprinciped@mail.montclair.edu
Food in 20th Century Italian Literature Roundtable.
This roundtable will facilitate the discussion and analysis of
the presence of food in 20th Century Italian Literature within
historical, social and mythological structures. Daniela Bisello
Antonucci: dantonuc@princeton.edu
The Interplay of Literature, Music and the Visual
Arts during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance The panel welcomes interdisciplinary papers
(in both Italian and English) that consider the interplay between
Italian literature, music and/or visual arts. Papers should examine
closely the factors and their cause-effect dynamics that influenced
society's conceptions of the divine and the secular over the
course of the centuries. The panel is also meant to contemplate
how artistic theories and production, as witnessed by contemporary
literature, express new trends of civilization within the Italian
culture. Marco Cerocchi; Princeton University; Dept. of
French and Italian; 303 East Pyne; Princeton, NJ
08544-5264; (609) 258-4511; cerocchi@princeton.edu
Italian Feminisms in (Trans)National Context At
a time of national and global cultural, socio-political and economic
polarization like the present, does feminism as a theory and
a practice of difference still matter? This panel welcomes contributions
addressing this question by focusing on past and current cultural
and political practices of Italian women, engaged in a dialogue
with Western and non-Western civilizations. Papers should discuss
Italian perspectives on women, gender, race and popular culture,
literary studies and education, religion and the Church, ecofeminism,
politics and globalization, regional and transnational feminism,
or concentrate on Italian women's political activism and artistic
experiences from a cross-cultural or interdisciplinary standpoint.
Send one page abstract to Francesco Parmeggiani: parmeggiani@fordham.edu
Italian Literature and Migration The phenomenon
of migration to Italy and the multiculturalism that is its result
have produced a new wave of writers who deserve careful study.
This panel seeks to determine whether these new writers attempt
to assimilate to the established Italian literary scene or to
subvert its Eurocentrism. Proposals for papers should be emailed
to Vincenzo Bolletino: bollettinov@mail.montclair.edu
Italian Literature and Translation This panel
intends to explore the various facets of translation in Italian
literature from all time periods. Topics can include, but not
be limited to, the exploration of the demand for translations
into English of Italian works, the representation of Italian
culture and civilization through translation, mis-translations
and re-translations, specific issues in translating Italian literature,
and the examination of selected representative works of Italian
literature in translation. E-mail 250-word abstracts to Marella
Feltrin-Morris, Ithaca College, mfeltrinmorris@ithaca.edu
Italian Literature: From the Twentieth Century to
the New Millennium The panel invites papers delving
into the Italian literary production of the Twentieth century,
including both major and minor authors and the literary movements
that have shaped the Italian cultural and artistic scene. Particular
attention will be given to proposals that discuss authors and
movements from a philosophical or historical perspective, or
that delve into the latest cultural debates ongoing in Italy,
where many young and talented authors have recently emerged.
Papers are welcome in Italian and English. Please e-mail 250-word
abstracts to Giovanni Migliara, James Madison University, migliagx@jmu.edu.
Italian Literature: Renaissance and Humanism The
panel seeks to explore major and minor authors of the Renaissance.
Papers on any aspect of Italian literature of the Renaissance
and Humanism are eligible. All theoretical perspectives are invited.
Submit abstracts to Maryann Tebben, Simon's Rock College of Bard;
via email: mtebben@simons-rock.edu;
or via mail at Division of Language and Literature, 84 Alford
Road, Great Barrington, MA 01230.
Italian Theater Exploration and analysis
of main Italian playwrights, trends and movements in Italian
Theater from "Commedia dell'Arte" to present.
Daniela Bisello Antonucci dantonuc@princeton.edu
La Natura nella letteratura europea dall'Ottocento
al Novecento The panel invites papers that explore the
role of nature in the literary and cinematic works of European
authors in the Nineteenth and Twentieth century. The panel seeks
on the one side to continue the exploration of the philosophical
implications that have sustained the elaboration of Nature in
the aesthetic endeavor and have contributed to shape modern literature,
and on the other to explore the literary production that is a
result of this fertile process of pollination. Please send abstracts
to Simona Wright, Modern Languages Department, The College
of New Jersey, 2000 Pennington Road, Ewing, NJ 08628-0718,
Phone: 609 771 2996; e-mail: simona@tcnj.edu
Literary Relations between Italy and the Hispanic
World: From 1927 –Present Around 1930 a Spanish
author declared Madrid the "Meridiano Intelectual de Hispano-América".
Writers from the other side of the ocean responded with fierce
refutation asserting their own cultural and artistic autonomy.
The result created conflict between specific literary circles
in Spain and Hispano-American countries such as Argentina, Chile
and Perù, which had enjoyed a fertile literary inter-relation
with Italy. The panel will focus on papers that analyze the search
for a specific and autonomous cultural identity vis-à-vis
linguistic issues, imperialism, politics, and agency. Please
send abstracts as an attachment to: Antonella Calarota, antonellacalarota@libero.it
The Long Italian Eighteenth Century (1700-1815)and
the Grand Tour This panel seeks papers on any
aspect of Italy as viewed by others traveling through, or Italy's
changing perceptions of itself due to interaction with visitors
from the rest of Europe. Please send proposals by e-mail to Clorinda
Donato, donato@csulb.edu.
Mediterranean Moods in Contemporary Italian Culture
At a time when Italy and other Western nations endure a dramatic
process of re-negotiation of identity within a globalized and
transnational world, regional entities and cultures become relevant
frames of reference. The liquid space of the Mediterranean paradigm
has emerged as a precious conceptual tool to re-examine the intellectual
fluidity of the interactions among various cultures, begging
for a reassessment of the copious Mediterranean imagery inherited
from the Italian cultural tradition. The purpose of this panel
is to investigate the evolution and the repositioning of the
Mediterranean framework in contemporary Italian literature and
cinema. Send abstracts to: fulvio.orsitto@uconn.edu
Modern Italian Poetry This panel welcomes
papers that examine the rich and deeply engaging work of Modern
Italian Poets and many of the dominant literary movements of
the period, such as Symbolism, Crepuscolarism, Futurism, Hermeticism
and the New Avant-garde. Contributors may send abstracts by e-mail
to laura.baffoni-licata@tufts.edu
or by regular mail to: Laura Baffoni-Licata, Dept. of Romance
Languages, Olin Center, 180 Packard Ave, Tufts University, Medford,
MA 02155
Noir Italian Style from the 1990s to the Present This
panel discusses the redefinition(s) of the noir in contemporary
Italian literature (from the 1990s to the present), focusing
on: the definition of the genre as described within the
novels (or short stories); the characterization of the detective;
the setting of the novels (or short stories) linked to the phenomenon
of regionalismo; the seriality of the genre; the impact of the
studies and events on the revival of the noir; and the cinematographic
interpretation(s) of the noir. Please send a 300 words abstract
to Inge Lanslots at inge.lanslots@lessius-ho.be
Paper to Screen and Back Again in Italian Film
This session invites contributions on the study of the relationship
between literature and cinema, from a variety of perspectives.
Welcomed topics may include: cinematic adaptations of modern
and contemporary Italian literary works, from both a theoretical
and practical approach; reciprocal influences between the two
forms, intended, for instance, as a dialogue between a book and
a movie on a specific subject or as personal encounters between
the author and the filmmaker; influences of cinematographic themes
on literary works; and the success of literary works in relation
to adaptations in different historical, national and social contexts.
Please send one page abstract paper by email to Dr. Daniela De
Pau, Drexel University <dd62@drexel.
edu>
Religion in Nineteenth and Twentieth Century Italian
Literature Papers dealing with authors or works
in nineteenth or twentieth Italian literature that develop religious
themes or reveal, more or less openly, a fundamentally religious
outlook. Umberto Mariani, Rutgers University <
mariani@rci.rutgers.edu
>
Resistence Is Futile!" … or Is It: The Role
of the Intellectual in Contemporary Italy Roundtable. This session invites papers on the role of
the intellectual in contemporary Italy. All approaches are welcome.
However, of special interest are discussions focusing on novel
forms of participation by intellectuals in cultural, social and
political practice. Proposals (maximum 250 words) should be sent
to: Prof. Eugenio Bolongaro, Department of Italian Studies, McGill
University. E-mail: eugenio.bolongaro@mcgill.ca
Fax: 514.398-1748
Revisiting the Past. Re-conceptualizing the Present
Italian-American Women Writing in the eighties
departs from its earlier models, mainly concerned with the articulation
and the validation of the immigrant experience, to engage with
feminism, gender, sexuality and identity issues in a more oblique
manner. This panel aims at investigating critical inquiries surrounding
those works that show a strong commitment for style and form
(the memoir being a case in point) thus proposing a re-conceptualization
of what it means to be an ethnic writer and to create ethnic
literature. Papers are welcome in Italian or in English. Please
send proposed paper titles and abstracts of 200 words to Dora
Labate, Rutgers University: alabate@rci.rutgers.edu
The Risorgimento And The Novel: Historical Novel and
"Bildungsroman" The purpose of this session
is to discuss the evolution of the Italian novel during the process
of Italian unification. The relation of "form" to "function",
and of novel, opera and the press, in the diffusion of Risorgimento
ideals and ideas; the "canonization" of novelists at
the time and since; the new Italian and European literary "geography"
and the rise of the "Southern" question: these are
major areas of focus for the panel, but are not intended to exclude
logically related issues. Questions and abstract to Mark Epstein,
e-mail: mwepstein@verizon.net
The Role of Intellectuals in the Second Republic
Roundtable. It is renown that the "Clean Hands" affair
constituted a watershed for Italy: Italian politics was swept
away together with a socio-economic system that had been in place
ever since the end of World War 2. Such major changes have obviously
affected all sectors of society and cultural life of the country
and could but prompt an intellectual reflection that has led
to a rethinking of the role of intellectuals in today's Italy.
This roundtable aims at situating contemporary Italian intellectuals
addressing issues related to these changes. To participate
in the roundtable contact Simona Barello:
simona.barello@fastwebnet.it
Roberto Benigni's Cinema and the Blend of Comedy and
Tragedy We are looking for papers that include
(but are not limited to) the examination of the following topics:
the overarching themes existing in Benigni's earlier films that
are brought to full development in Life is Beautiful;
the interplay of comedy and tragedy in his films prior to Life
is Beautiful; Some of the influences, literary or cinematic,
on Benigni's artistic production; Life is Beautiful and
the controversies rooted in its representation of the Holocaust.
Please submit a 300-500 word abstract via email to: gracerbullaro@msn.com
Scrittrici di razza The purpose of
this panel is to explore the elaboration of Nature, the sense
and colors of land, of community, of tradition and archaic characters
in Italian women's writing in Ninetheenth and Twentieth Century.
The papers should attempt to answer the following questions:
Is their engagement purely related to the feminine world or can
women writers be seen as a voice, a spokeswoman of the cultural
heritage of the community they belong to? Lucy Delogu, John Cabot
University: lucydelogu@libero.it
Sicilia and the Literature of Travel This
panel will explore representations of the image of Sicily (both
past and present)in travelogues, diaries, novels, historical
analysis and journalism through the lense of literary conventions,
declared and undeclared goals, fiction vs non-fiction, crime
and punishment (or the lack thereof), prejudices and biases,
history, politics, and religion. Please send abstracts to
Maria Enrico, Borough of Manhattan Community College/CUNY <menrico@bmcc.cuny.edu>
Somatizing the Regime: Fascism as Sickness in the
Films of the 70s This panel focuses
on those films produced in the tumultuous 1970s whose clear intent
is to open a dialogue with the present inspiring significant
questions not only about Fascism, but more specifically about
its moral and psychological effects on the individual. This new
post-neorealist perspective contributes to a complex and consistent
film universe of arresting illustrations, visual metaphors and
narrative synthesis that address the cultural challenges and
political transformations of 1970s Italy. Fascism thus becomes
a powerful trope through which each filmmaker attempts a recognizable
and stylized interpretation of a radically changing nation.
Rita Gagliano, Temple University: r_gagliano@earthlink.net
Teaching Italian and Italian Culture
Papers (in Italian and English) should focus on the influence
of the Italian cultural identity. Proposals for courses on Italian
culture,interdisciplinary approaches and/or the teaching of Italian
with new methodologies are welcome. Possible publication of the
papers in a volume I am editing. Send proposals to Emanuele Occhipinti:
eocchipi@drew.edu
Top
Pedagogy
See also panels listed under:
American: Octavia
Butler's Legacy in the Classroom
English/British: Teaching
Medieval Women
German: Bridging
the Gap: Integrating the Teaching of Language and Literature
Italian: Teaching
Italian and Italian Culture
Spanish/Portuguese: Synchronous
and Asynchronous On-line Communication in the Foreign Language
Classroom / Spanish Beyond the Classroom: Locally-Based Teaching?
Creative Writing in the Foreign Language Classroom
Intended to put various approaches and points
of view into dialogue, this panel will ask whether activities
used in creative writing programs and writing workshops (both
in and outside academia) can be productively incorporated into
the foreign language classroom in order to provide written activities
suitable for both a general audience and students particularly
interested in literature. Papers sought that adress related questions
from theoretical and practical perspectives. Send 1 page proposal
by deadline to Dr. Phillip John Usher. Email: pusher@barnard.edu,
or: Dr. Phillip John Usher, French Department, Barnard College
(Columbia University), 3009 Broadway, New York, NY 10027.
English Abroad: Teaching English in Non-English Speaking
Countries English Abroad will explore the difficulties,
adventures, and rewards of teaching English (language, writing,
literature) in non-English speaking cultures. The goal of this
panel will be to present the experiences of various teacher-scholars,
whether Americans or foreign nationals, teaching English in non-English
speaking countries. Gordon Reynolds, Ferris State University:
gordonreynolds@ferris.edu
Honors Programs at Two-Year Colleges
Roundtable. Sponsored by the Two-Year College Caucus. More
than one third of community colleges now have honors programs
which attract and cultivate the talents of high-achieving studen
