Romanticism and Socio-Political Protest

deadline for submissions: 
May 8, 2018
full name / name of organization: 
Keats-Shelley Organization of America's sponsored panel at SAMLA: South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference
contact email: 

Romanticism and Socio-Political Protest

Keats-Shelley Association of America sponsored panel

Recalling Romantic works of social critique, such as John Keats’s “To Autumn,” Percy Bysshe Shelley’s “The Mask of Anarchy,” Lord Byron’s Don Juan, and Mary Shelley’s The Last Man, Romanticism and Social Justice is an affiliated session of the Keats-Shelley Association of America at the South Atlantic Modern Language Association Conference in Birmingham, Alabama (Nov 2-4, 2018).This panel seeks papers related to second-generation Romantic-era writers and/or their literary circles, including those which may address the transnational turn in literary studies and of postcolonial theory to a more inclusive understanding of British Romanticism.  Proposals addressing the works of John Keats, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Mary Shelley, Lord Byron, Leigh Hunt, and William Hazlitt as well as those which address the aesthetics of politics and /or globalism will receive priority. Proposals that engage with the conference theme (“Fighters from the Margins: Socio-Political Activists and Their Allies”) are especially welcome. Subjects to be considered might include (but are not limited to) Romantic literature in relation to contemporary socio-political activism or modern activism, the role of genre in the Romantics’ socio-political activism, forms of protest in Romantic literature, and reimagining Romantic protest literature through alternative lenses--such as digital forms.  Please send a 250-word abstract, bio or CV (one page only), and audio-visual requests to Tina Iemma, St. John’s University, iemmat@stjohns.edu and Jamie Watson, UNC Greensboro, jlwatso5@uncg.edu by 8 May 2018.