Call for Papers

Literature at Sea: Storms, Shipwrecks, and Survival

Jacksonville, Florida, USA, 12-17 May 2018

Abstracts are invited for a conference sponsored by the Troy University English Department on storms, shipwrecks, and survival, broadly defined.  Proposed papers may focus on the literature of any country and any literary period, but please keep in mind that the conference language will be English.  Topics might include (but are not limited to) the following:

Hurricanes

Typhoons

Tidal waves

Cyclones

Waterspouts

Nor’easters

Whirlpools

Floods

Salvage

Diving

Sublimity and the sea

Mutinies

Metaphorical storms

Metaphorical seas

The Tempest

The Kraken

Sea monsters

Winds

Tradewinds

War

Colonization

Politics

Ship of state

Ship of fools

Historical wrecks

Titanic

Andrea Doria

Steamboats

Metaphorical shipwrecks

Bermuda Triangle

Flat Earth

Airships

Captain Cook

Captain Ahab

The Flying Dutchman

Ship as microcosm or crucible

Navigation

Mysteries

Floods

Treasure

Piracy

Slave narratives

Slave trade

Castaways

Cannibalism

Sustainability

Environment

Robinson Crusoe

The Odyssey

Islands

Atolls

Cays

Island culture

Pitcairn Islands

Lighthouses

Indentured servitude

Sharks

Jaws

Utopia/dystopia

Gilligan’s Island

Atlantis

Captain Nemo

Nautical inventions

Submarines

Arctic/Antarctic exploration

Frozen seas

Sir Francis Drake

Rivers

Travel writing

Sea trade

Ships and shipping

Maps

Safe harbor

Aquatic life

Mythology

Seascapes

Religion

Superstition

The Caribbean

Recreation

Tourism

Visual art

Fantasy

Please visit <https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=litsea2018> to submit a 250-word abstract by 1 November 2017.  You will need to create a FREE EasyChair account to submit your abstract (linked at the aforementioned URL).  Questions about the conference may be addressed to bprobertson@troy.edu.  The conference web site is available at <http://spectrum.troy.edu/conference>.

This conference is scheduled to take place aboard the M. S. Carnival Elation, which will be sailing from Jacksonville, Florida, USA, 12-17 May 2018, with stops in the Bahamas at the ports of Nassau and Half Moon Cay.  When possible, presentation times will be arranged so as not to conflict with port visits.

Because of the logistics involved in securing the conference venue and lower prices, we will make decisions on submissions by 1 December 2017. 

We hope to produce a conference-proceedings volume in 2019.