category: theatre

Tragedy/The Tragic in Asian American Literature

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 20:05:07 -0500

This panel will explore Asian American literary participation in the tragic mode. Reasons for this exploration include:
- the desire to explore some of the aesthetic dimensions of Asian American fiction that have long been neglected by critics.
- the desire to recuperate tragedy/the tragic for the 20th Century, where it has often been dismissed as no longer applicable
- the desire to break down longstanding binaries between existential and political approaches to the tragic.
- the desire to better understand possible political ramifications of tragedy/the tragic in the 20th Century
- the desire to examine the role of genre in knowledge production and ethics

Possible paper topics include, but not are limited to:
- any approaches/treatments of/responses to suffering in Asian American literature, by authors, readers, critics, narrators, or fictional characters
- a questioning of traditional Western claims to tragedy, through investigations of tragedy in Asian and/or Asian American literature
- Examinations of heroism in Asian American literature
- Explorations of the ways in which the tragic appears in Asian American literature
-The tragic as it manifests in Asian cultural values/belief systems.
- Ethics and suffering/grief/tragedy in Asian American literature
- Genre shaping in Asian American literature
- Attention to lyricism and imagism in Asian American fiction
- Negotiating hope in Asian American fiction
- The role of genre in knowledge production and ethics
- The tragic as it manifests in the 20th Century
- The tragic as it manifests in American literature
- The relationship of any of the above to transnationalism

Please send a 400 word abstract by email to sgardam@gmail.com by February 18, 2012.

Race and Metaphor in 19th/20th Century American Literature and Thought (MLA Boston; abstracts due March 10, 2012)

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 18:18:32 -0500

Race and Metaphor in 19th/20th Century American Literature and Thought
MLA Special Session
January 3-6, 2013, Boston, MA
Abstract Deadline: March 10, 2012

This session takes up connections between metaphor and race, examining the ways that language and cognition influence the interactions between different racial and cultural groups. In doing so, it looks to extend awareness of the interactions between daily language and other discursive systems or practices—literary, social, political, scientific, and/or economic linguistic paradigms, for example—that inform and influence the discussion of race in daily language. In highlighting the relations between different discursive practices, the goal is to understand the ways in which language in general, and metaphor in specific, both conditions and perpetuates the relationships between different groups of people in an unequal manner. Further, unpacking the connections between language and identity will allow us to extend the ways in which Critical Race Theory can be utilized to examine the linguistic configurations that disguise the social forces perpetuating inequality. In Playing in the Dark: Whiteness and the Literary Imagination (1993), for instance, Toni Morrison engages the tensions created by race and metaphor:

Race has become metaphorical—a way of referring to and disguising forces, events, classes, and expressions of social decay and economic division far more threatening to the body politic than biological “race” ever was. [...] It seems that it has a utility far beyond economy, beyond the sequestering of classes from one another, and has assumed a metaphorical life so completely embedded in daily discourse that it is perhaps more necessary and more on display than ever before. (63)

Morrison is not alone in noting the relationship between race and metaphor; Ralph Ellison’s examination of white insecurity in “What America Would Be Like Without Blacks” (1970) highlights the historic validation whites found in subordinating blacks:

Since the beginning of the nation, white Americans have suffered from a deep inner uncertainty as to who they really are. One of the ways that has been used to simplify the answer has been to seize upon the presence of black Americans and use them as a marker, a symbol of limits, a metaphor for the “outsider.” (110-1)

In both Morrison and Ellison, the connection between race and metaphor becomes the means to demarcate the boundaries of inclusion and citizenship; the “utility” that Morrison connects to the metaphorical use of race refers to the implied assumptions within language that participate in maintaining the dominant ideology. In Ellison’s case, the observation that African Americans exist as a “metaphor for the ‘outsider’” points to the linguistic accrual of social and political power in language that occurs over time, specifically as this usage moves from a conscious to unconscious application.

This panel is interested in investigating the manifestation of these ideas in 19th and 20th century American literature and thought. It is open to papers focusing on the function of metaphor and race in individual works (poetry, prose, drama, film, etc.), papers addressing theoretical connections between race and metaphor, as well as papers that engage both simultaneously. How, for example, do individual authors dismantle racial metaphors in their work, or unconsciously (or consciously) make use of racial metaphors to structure ideas across individual or collective works? Are there different strategies employed by different groups of authors in addressing the negative ways in which racial metaphors silently supplement texts as well as the larger national discourse surrounding race? Similarly, how can George Lakoff’s and Mark Johnson’s ideas concerning the mapping of the source and the target of conceptual metaphors be applied to the metaphorical performance and production of race?

Elizabeth Young, author of Black Frankenstein: The Making of an American Metaphor and the Carl M. and Elsie A. Small Professor of English at Mt. Holyoke College, will be the respondent for the panel.

Please send 250-500 word abstracts by March 10, 2012 to Thomas Morgan (tmorgan2@udayton.edu).

Other Islands: Shaw, Beckett, and World Literature (MLA 2013)

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 17:49:55 -0500

.
Despite their considerable differences, Bernard Shaw and Samuel
Beckett were born into an Anglo-Irish axis but envisioned worlds
beyond it that incorporated and transfigured their national heritage. This panel seeks papers that address how Shaw and Beckett might be read together, particularly through new definitions of world literature. How do Shaw and Beckett envision modern drama as a series of parables or demonstrations of world creation and destruction; as a negotiation between the local and the global; or as the erasure of historical geographies in favor of flexible places (landscapes, theatres) and spaces (the past, the future, the state)? Papers might also address Shaw and Beckett’s shared Protestantism and Neo-Protestantism, their universalism or rejection of universals, their insistence on science fiction and fantasy as ramifications of realism, and their dramatization of engagements with and retreats from inner and outer worlds, among other related topics.

Please send a 300 word-abstract and CV to Lawrence Switzky at
lawrence.switzky@utoronto.ca by March 10, 2012. Proposals and queries are welcome before the deadline.

Southerners in Film SAMLA 2012 CONFERENCE (11-9 through 11-11-12)

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 13:29:52 -0500

This regular session of the 2012 South Atlantic Modern Language Association invites papers on any aspect of southerners as represented in contemporary film, including essays that address the transnational turn in southern film, as well as issues of authenticity, mythology, and folklore in southern film. Other topics might include (but are not limited to) the southern documentary impulse, expressions of race, class and sexuality in contemporary southern film, adaptation and re-imaginings of southern literature, and new southern studies and southern cinema. We particularly welcome submissions speaking to the conference theme of borders, migration, boundaries, and memoir. By May 15, 2012, please submit abstracts along with a short CV by e-mail to Dr. James A. Crank at cranka@nsula.edu.

Portals Literary Journal is accepting submissions for our Spring 2012 issue.

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 20:29:21 -0500

2012 Call for Submissions
Portals is currently accepting submissions for our Spring 2012 issue.

Submission deadline: March 1, 2012.

Portals invites original critical essays and short creative fiction that explore comparative literary topics across cultural, regional, linguistic, and temporal boundaries for the Spring 2012 issue. This edition will be available in scholarly journal listings worldwide.

Formal requirements for original critical essays:

Papers should be in English.
In order to be considered for submission, essays must compare at least two texts from different linguistic traditions.
Citations should include both the original language and the English translation.
Papers should be no longer than 25 pages in 12 point font, and should be properly formatted and documented in MLA style.
Formal requirements for creative fiction:

An author may submit up to 3 pieces of any form of creative fiction with a limit of 10 pages per submission. Fiction must be of a comparative/critical nature.
General requirements:

All submissions are to be sent via e-mail as an MS-Word attachment.
Submissions must include a 250-word abstract and a cover sheet including name, address, telephone number, e-mail address, school affiliation, and current academic standing. Your name should not appear anywhere else in the proposal, since this will be a blind selection process.
Authors should be currently enrolled undergraduate students, graduate students or doctoral candidates.
Submissions must be original and previously unpublished.
To submit, send your submission as a .doc or .rtf attachment to: clsa[at]mail.sfsu.edu

Review Process:

Portals is published once a year in the Spring semester at San Francisco State University, in conjunction with the Comparative Literature Student Association (CLSA). All articles are reviewed in a double-blind process, and authors will be notified by email within 2 to 3 months of the submission deadline.

We encourage authors to read our journal thoroughly before submitting. Portals most recent issue and archives can be found here: http://portalsjournal.com

All inquiries and questions can be directed to our editors at: clsa[at]mail.sfsu.edu

Confined Spaces: Considering Performance, Madness, and Psychiatry

Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:54:23 -0500

Madness and theatre are not unfamiliar bedfellows. Their twinned histories are in evidence since the earliest examples of literature. Eschewing the somewhat hazy link between madness and creativity, however, this interdisciplinary conference opens up a critical dialogue between mental ill health and theatre and asks how far performance might be a useful methodology for understanding and articulating alternative mental experiences. We are particularly concerned with the shifts in notions of mental ill health, its treatment, and its spaces from the late nineteenth century onwards and how this psychiatric and human history might speak to a concomitant theatre history. The conference is addressing what theatre practice has taken place in this period about this subject but also what performance work has taken place within its institutions. Moreover, it raises questions about the performativity of health and illness. The conference will also explore notions of space and place and interrogate the relationships between theatrical and medical environments. This conference, then, invites scholars and practitioners from all disciplines to share their research at the intersection between medicine and the arts, between science and culture. Papers are invited, but not limited to, the following areas:

 Theatre and psychiatric environments (hospitals, asylums, community settings)
 Madness and dramaturgy
 Stand up comedy and mental health
 Madness and architecture
 Madness and metaphor
 Madness and testimony
 Applied theatre in mental health contexts
 Madness, voice, and silence
 Madness and spectacle
 Madness and embodiment

The conference will feature a keynote paper from Professor Kay Redfield Jamison alongside papers from an international array of scholars including Professor Paul Crawford, Professor Ellen Kaplan, Professor Susan Cox, Dr Juliet Foster, Dr Anna Harpin and Dr Carina Bartleet. The conference will also include workshops and screenings from The Comedy School and Stand Up for Mental Health.

The AHRC supported conference is organised jointly by the University of Exeter and the University of Cambridge. For further information please contact Anna Harpin (a.r.harpin@exeter.ac.uk) or Juliet Foster (jlf1000@cam.ac.uk).

To propose a paper: Please send abstracts (up to 350 words) via email to Dr. Anna Harpin at: a.r.harpin@exeter.ac.uk, and Dr Juliet Foster at: jlf1000@cam.ac.uk by March 28, 2012.

To book online: Go to www.isolatedacts.org

[UPDATE] CFP: Science Fiction/Fantasy/Legend NEPCA (6/1/12; Rochester, NY 10/26-27/12)

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 23:51:02 -0500

CALL FOR PAPERS
SCIENCE FICTION, FANTASY, AND LEGEND AREA
http://sf-fantasy-legend.blogspot.com/
2012 Conference of The Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA)
St. John Fisher College in Rochester, New York
26-27 October 2012
Proposals by 1 June 2012

Proposals are invited from scholars of all levels for papers to be presented in the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend Area. Presentations will be limited to 15-20 minutes in length (depending on final panel size) and may address any aspect of the intermedia genres of science fiction, fantasy, and/or legends as represented in popular culture produced in any country, any time period, and for any audience. Please see our website (http://sf-fantasy-legend.blogspot.com/) for further details and ideas.

If you are interested in proposing a paper or panel of papers, please send a proposal of approximately 300 to 500 words and a one to two page CV to both the Program Chair AND to the Science Fiction, Fantasy, and Legend Area Chair at the following addresses (please note "SF/Fantasy/Legend Proposal" in your subject line):

Tim Madigan
Program Chair
tmadigan@sjfc.edu

Michael A. Torregrossa
Science Fiction, Fantasy and Legend Area Chair
Popular.Culture.and.the.Middle.Ages@gmail.com

The Northeast Popular Culture/American Culture Association (NEPCA) is a regional affiliate of the American Culture Association and the Popular Culture Association. NEPCA is an association of scholars in New England and New York, organized in 1974 at the University of Rhode Island. We reorganized and incorporated in Boston in 1992. The purpose of this professional association is to encourage and assist research, publication, and teaching on popular culture and culture studies topics by scholars in the northeast region of the United States. By bringing together scholars from various disciplines, both academic and non-academic people, we foster interdisciplinary research and learning. We publish a newsletter twice per year and we hold an annual conference at which we present both the Peter C. Rollins Book Award and an annual prize.

Membership in NEPCA is required for participation. Annual dues are currently $30 for full-time faculty and $15 to all other individuals. Further details are available at http://users.wpi.edu/~jphanlan/NEPCA.html.

[UPDATE] Principles of Uncertainty: A Conference on Critical Theory

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:34:14 -0500

“Principles of Uncertainty”

A Conference on Critical Theory

Keynote Speaker: Martin Hägglund

The students of the Department of Comparative Literature at the City University of New York Graduate Center present the first annual interdisciplinary conference on literary theory to be held Friday, May 4, 2012. This conference is being given in support of the CUNY Graduate Center’s proposed certificate for Critical Theory, which is dedicated to the study of literary and critical theory.

We invite papers from all disciplines focusing on works from any period that explore the theme of uncertainty as it pertains to literary and critical theory.

This conference welcomes papers centering upon any individual theorist, period, or school of critical theory, as well as comparisons of various theoretical approaches, including, but not limited to literary theory, psychoanalysis, philosophy, gender studies, and political theory. Some of the questions this conference seeks to answer include, but are not limited to:

· How is the meaning of a text uncertain?

· Is this uncertainty purposefully placed within a text or a by-product of the act of reading?

· How is this uncertainty demonstrated in the relationship between author and reader?

· How can uncertainty be understood not only with respect to literature but in ethical, gendered, political, and/or social terms?

· How is identity shown to be uncertain?

· How does an “undecidable” future impact present ethical and political actions?

· How is history (whether of language, narrative, and/or society) destabilized and called into question?

· How does language contribute to the uncertainty of meaning and interpretation?

· How does the theorist’s own writing present the reader with an example of uncertainty?

· How does uncertainty function in the methodologies of interpretation and the making of meaning?

· Can a text have a stable meaning or is it always uncertain?

Please submit a 300 word abstract for a 15-20 minute paper by March 1, 2012 to uncertaintyconference2012@gmail.com. Proposals should include the title of the paper, presenter’s name, institutional and departmental affiliation, and any technology requests. We also welcome panel proposals of three to four papers.

This conference is co-sponsored by:

The Writer’s Institute at the City University of New York Graduate Center: an un-MFA program devoted to bringing together the country’s most talented writers and today’s most celebrated editors.

The Doctoral Students’ Council: the sole policymaking body representing students in doctoral and master’s programs at the Graduate Center of the City University of New York.

Medical Economics in American Literature - [UPDATE]

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 22:18:23 -0500

Signaled in colonial portrayals of a New World rife with lush resources and intense mortal dangers to contemporary discourses surrounding public healthcare and its monetary costs/benefits---the country’s physical and economic “well being” have long been connected in the public psyche. Recognizing the symbolic possibilities behind this connection, American authors frequently used it to explore public and social issues affecting their nation and its citizenry. This panel seeks projects which explore such connections. Essays may pertain to any American literary period or genre. In addition, all cross-disciplinary and/or hemispheric approaches will be considered. Possible topics may include but are not limited to:

-The value or cost of wellness/disease
-Healthcare accessibility
-Economic influences on medical treatment
-Impact of diseases on economies
-Disability
-Medical Breakthroughs/Experimentation
-Doctor/Patient relations & medicine as a profession
-Lay-healers and non-traditional medical practices

Abstracts of 300-400 words should be submitted on or before Feb. 29th 2012 to heather.chacon@uky.edu. Please note that this is a provisional panel whose acceptance to MLA is contingent on approval of the MLA Special Sessions committee. Participants must be MLA members by April 7, 2012 to participate.

CONF: Wasted Spaces – University of Virginia – Charlottesville – FEB 17-18

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 18:59:21 -0500

Wasted Spaces
19th Annual German Graduate Studies Conference at the University of Virginia
Charlottesville (February 17-18)

Organizers: Charles Taggart and Rebekah Slodounik (University of Virginia)
Further Information: www.uvagermangradconference2012.wordpress.com
Charles Taggart: (cwt5z@virginia.edu)
Rebekah Slodounik:(ras9rb@virginia.edu)

In an age of heightened awareness over the depletion of natural resources pitted against an ever-growing and increasingly interconnected global population, the problematics of space have assumed a prominent position in contemporary discourse. The issue of space, including its definitions and uses, comes at a time in which current and future human endeavors face the challenge of a rapidly changing social and natural world. Our conference aims to explore different approaches towards space in discourse, culture, and the environment.

Program

FRI / Feb 17 / 2012 / Nau 101 / 5 p.m.

Professor Rochelle Tobias
(Department of German and Romance Languages and Literatures, The Johns Hopkins University)
"Rilke and the Landscapes of the Heart"

Opening Remarks: Rebekah Slodounik and Charles Taggart
Volker Kaiser (Department Chair)

SAT / Feb 18 / 2012 / Olsson Hall 120

8.30-9.00 a.m.: Breakfast

Panel I : Spatial Legacies
Moderator: Beatrice Waegner

9:00 - 9:30 Sven Frankowsky (Westfälische Wilhelms-
Universität Münster) –
Fruchtbar vergiftete Un-Orte bei David
Foster Wallace

9:30 - 10:00 Kerstin Steitz (University of Virginia)–
Memory Space: The Courtroom and the
Concentration Camp in Peter Weiss’s Die
Ermittlung. Ein Oratorium in 11 Gesängen

10:00 - 10:30 Lea Rekow (Center for Art and
Environment at the Nevada Museum of
Art)–
Extract: A Cultural Ecology of the
Colorado Plateau

10:30 - 10:45 Coffee Break

Panel 2: The Normative Undone
Moderator: Solvejg Nitzke

10:45 - 11:15 Sebastian Wilde (Universität Leipzig) –
Zur Störung der Wahrnehmung
normalisierter Räume durch
Naturkatastrophen

11:15 - 11:45 Danielle Pisechko (University of
Virginia) –
Homelessness and Home-loss:
Vergangenheitsbewältigung in deutscher
Gegenwartsliteratur

11:45 - 12:15 Bogumil Terminski (University of
Geneva)–
Development Induced Displacement and
Indigenous People’s Rights

12:15 - 13:45 Lunch

Panel 3: Unhallowed Spaces
Moderator: Gabriel Cooper

13:45 - 14:15 Kevin Boix (University of Virginia) –
The Berlin Sex Exchange: Homosociality
and Berlin Alexanderplatz

14:15 - 14:45 Michael Bryant (Indiana University) –
The Sacred and the Profane in Heinrich
Mann’s Professor Unrat

14:45 - 15:00 Coffee Break

Panel 4: A Sense of Space: Space and the Senses
Moderator: Danielle Verena Kollig

15:00 - 15:30 Jacob Denz (New York University) –
‘The Most Beautiful Manifoldness’:
Landscape and Kantian
Aesthetics in Die Leiden des jungen
Werthers and Die Wahlverwandtschaften

15:30 - 16:00 Geraldine Suter (University of
Virginia)–
Impersonal Use of Personal Space: The
Human Voice Box in Marcel Beyer’s
Flughunde

16:00 Closing Remarks: Rebekah Slodounik and
Charles Taggart