Shakespeare after 9/11:
MLA Special Session and Journal Issue

In conjunction with the theme of a future issue of the Shakespeare
Yearbook, "Shakespeare after 9/11" (Theme Editor, Matthew Biberman),
the journal will sponsor a special session at the upcoming Annual
Meeting of the MLA (Philadelphia, December 27-30, 2006).

In the wake of the New Historicism, much critical work on Shakespeare
and his contemporaries has been faulted for its failure to develop
and deploy an active sense of historical self-consciousness. Such a
failure can be traced to a number of significant tendencies in
historicist
methodology: the privileging of synchronic analysis over diachronic
(or recursive) approaches; the conviction that truth emerges as an
immanent entity within culture, one that can be teased out by the
patient critic; and (more fundamentally) the lack of interest in how
meaning functions across time -- what is often pejoratively labeled
trans-historicist. Not surprisingly, little has been done to think
through what it means to read and teach the literary production of
Shakespeare and his contemporaries after 9/11.

Shakespeare Yearbook hopes to fill this critical gap by seeking out
and publishing scholarly essays that take seriously what and how
early modern English literature means in a post-9/11 world - a world
where strangers can be terrorists, where a heavy coat can be the
signifier for a suicide attack or a briefcase can be a dirty bomb,
where the workplace, the daily commute, the shopping center, or even
the theatre, can be transformed in an instant into a site of mass
suffering and death. The journal welcomes scholarship that treats
issues of religion, violence, empire, and race in works by
Shakespeare and his contemporaries, especially in light of post-9/11
readings, stagings, and films of such works.

To be considered for the MLA, please submit title and 250-word
abstract of proposed paper along with a brief scholarly bio by March
10, 2006 to Douglas A. Brooks (dbrooks_at_tamu.edu). Digital
submissions as e-mail attachments in Rich Text Format or Microsoft
Word only. Proposed MLA papers must not exceed eight double-spaced
pages in Times New Roman 12 point.

To be considered for Shakespeare Yearbook prospective contributors
should submit 250-word abstracts and brief scholarly bios to Douglas
A. Brooks (dbrooks_at_tamu.edu) by May 31, 2006
Digital submissions as e-mail attachments in Rich Text Format or
Microsoft Word only.

Maximum length for essays is 35 double-spaced pages in Times New
Roman 12 point. Citations should be formatted according to the
Chicago Manual of Style. The name of the author/s should only appear
in an accompanying cover letter. All essays are reviewed anonymously
by two readers.

--Douglas A. BrooksEditor, Shakespeare Yearbook http://www-english.tamu.edu/pubs/sjb/Associate Professor, Department of Englishhttp://www-english.tamu.edu/pers/fac/brooks/Faculty Coordinator, College of Liberal Arts Honors Programhttp://clla.tamu.edu/lbarplan/Texas A&M University210 B Blocker MS 4227College Station, TX 77843-4227H: 979-574-0968; W: 979-862-1411; Fax: 979-862-2292 ========================================================== From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List CFP_at_english.upenn.edu Full Information at http://cfp.english.upenn.edu or write Jennifer Higginbotham: higginbj_at_english.upenn.edu ==========================================================Received on Tue Feb 07 2006 - 13:17:22 EST