This panel invites papers on the topic of (re)vision—retelling, translating, adapting, re-seeing—literature in ways that engender community empowerment. There are myriad ways to revisit literary texts through new iterations, and it is often through the act of retelling and recrafting that subversive narratives are formed and new communities forged. This panel will explore how retelling a narrative shapes understandings of an original text, the community from which it was created, and the community into which it is being called forth. How can translation produce new entry points for readers into “foreign” texts, cultures, and languages? How might the adaptation of literature foster community across disciplines, ages, cultures, genders, and species? How might an author reconfigure a historical and/or popular narrative for a new audience, and to what end? How might shifting a narrative into a new genre, form, or medium become a subversive, interpretative act? We invite papers that address the questions listed above, but also other innovative explorations into the topic of re-seeing literature for community empowement. 

Note: This is an in-person panel that will take place at the NeMLA Conference in Newport, Rhode Island, March 6-9th 2027.