In his groundbreaking work Beginnings, (1975) Edward Said identified a key shift in the idea and practice of the literary career. Whereas in the pre-modern period the writing life was considered a vocation for which there were well-established models, the idea of the literary career that emerges in the late nineteenth century is experienced as an internal process for which there are no obvious blueprints. The modern author has to 'create not only his art but also the very course of his writings' (Said, 227). Despite lacking the framework of the poetic vocation, modern authors according to Said, resist the 'dispersion' of their writings into a 'bunch of scattered occasions' (234).

CFP: Literary Marketplaces

45th Annual Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
April 3-6, 2014
Harrisburg, Pennsylvania
Host: Susquehanna University

Much of the recent work done in affect theory has focused on dark and problematic affective states such as alienation, melancholia, and despair. These negative affects have also been linked to literary modernism, which is often represented as a historical period of both creative richness and social disillusionment. This proposed panel will consider whether affect theory can be brought to bear on American modernism in new and thought-provoking ways. How might critical assessments of feeling in the American modernist period move beyond such well-trod signifiers as ennui, doubt, and pessimism? What relation, if any, can be inscribed between American modernist literature and one or more "positive" or remedial affects?

Call for papers: Southwest Popular / American Culture Association - Zombie Culture
Make plans to join the Southwest PCA/ACA for our 35th annual conference, February 19-22,
2014, at the Hyatt Regency Hotel and Conference Center in beautiful Albuquerque, New Mexico
Hyatt Regency Albuquerque
330 Tijeras NW
Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA 87102
Tel: +1 505 842 1234 or 888-421-1442

Beats and Counterculture area, SWPACA (11/1/13; 2/19-22/14)

Organizers of the 35th annual Southwest Popular/American Culture Association Conference seek paper and panel submissions to the "Beats and Counterculture" area.

The Department of Humanities at Paine College is requesting proposals for the annual Conference on the Harlem Renaissance to be held on the campus of historic Paine College. The theme for 2013 is "Midwives and Mavericks: Architects, Artists, and Critics of the Renaissance." The focus for presentations will center on the literature, history, philosophy, art, and music, as well as inter- and cross-disciplinary approaches to the lives, work, and impact of a variety of architects, artists, and critics of the Harlem Renaissance Era.

This conference will explore the ways in which culture has shaped and been shaped by the ever-growing and changing sources of human expansion. From ancient game trails to winding river routes, from the roads of the Roman empire to the railroads of the British Empire, from the multi-laned freeways of modernity to the internet of the new millennium, humans have marked and been marked by the earth while pushing against their physical limitations. In a parallel way, people have pushed against the ideologies of their community and forged new paths into and through social consciousness, reflecting, refining, and expanding these revolutionary ideas through cultural and critical expressions.