cultural studies and historical approaches

Please consider submitting an abstract to the following session at the NeMLA's 49th Convention that will take place April 12-15, 2018, in Pittsburgh, PA:

Ancient Myth and National Spaces in Medieval and Early Modern Europe

In this current age of resurgent nationalism, questions of national origin and legitimation take on a new importance. This panel, which welcomes submissions from scholars working within or across different national literary traditions, will explore the use of ancient myth in justifications of territorial conquests and the defense and legitimation of national spaces.

 Issues that papers may address include (but are not limited to):

Ancient and pseudo-ancient foundation myths 

In the twentieth century, literary criticism took a turn from philology and historical approaches toward analyzing small, suggestive passages, using them as a microcosm that offered a fertile glimpse into the larger textual expanses of the text.  In the Soviet Union, this effort came to be denominated as Russian formalism; in France, the explication de texte; in the Anglophone world, the New Criticism practice of “close reading.”  In recent decades, this approach has fallen out of fashion, as politically motivated theoretical and critical modalities have become operative (cultural studies, post-colonialism, queer theory, etc.)  While these recent efforts surely constitute an enlargement of our knowledge and an advancement of our critical protocol

This roundtable will exchange perceptions and experiences on the state of comparative literature both in the US and worldwide today. Our session will explore the following questions:

· What are the methods of analysis that are specific to comparative literature?

· What are the concrete experiences of “comparistes” in their teaching and research today?

· How can teachers of comparative literature promote their area of interest in academia and the community? 

· What contributions can teachers and researchers in comparative literature make to creative curriculum develop today?

This roundtable explores three questions concerning the teaching of disability literature: Is there an ideal curriculum or canon of readings concerned disabled people? Are there cultural differences from country/region to country/region in either the representation or teaching of disability literature? Do experienced teachers of disability literature have lessons learned to share with their NeMLA colleagues?

As a comparative literature roundtable, we want to be as inconclusive as possible, looking at English and non-English authors, curricula, and approaches. The language of instruction in this roundtable but the chair will co-ordinate hands-outs and translations.

This panel explores the representation of the Great War from roughly late 2017 through roughly 1925 in order to examine perspectives on the final years of the war and the onset of peace. 

The guiding themes in this panel will be as follows:

· The examination of the effects and results of the year as the war is concluding

· Exploring the aftermath of the war to gauge its meaning and consequences

· Comparing representations of the Great War from country to country and language to language to measure its impact on life in Europe and the rest of the world

· Comparing the final years of the war in film and literature

· Examining the effects of the war on geographical areas.