Call for Papers: The Stories of Flannery O'Connor and William Faulkner.

I am seeking abstracts of 500 words addressing the visual components with the
stories of Flannery O'Connor and/or William Faulkner for the O'Connor
conference in Milledgeville, Georgia, April 2-5, 2008. Although both O'Connor and
Faulkner are considered giants of southern literature, each credited with
laying bare the truths of the human soul, they are also intimately connected by
their fascination with the visual as an alternative mode of communication. Both
writers began their careers as illustrators, O'Connor cutting woodblocks for
the Georgia State College for Women and Faulkner composing ink drawings and
cartoons for the publications at Ole Miss. Both writers transfer this visual
imagination into fictional structures, often drawing "pictures in the text" that
encourage visuality and spatial reading. For instance, in "A Rose for
Emily," Faulkner's rendering of the Griersons ". . . as a tableau, Miss Emily a
slender figure in white in the background, her father a spraddled silhouette in
the foreground, his back to her and clutching a horsewhip, the two of them
framed by the back-flung door" visually coalesces the story's primary obsessions of
domination, repression, identity and insanity into one potent image that
complicates the narrator's seemingly detached role. Authors should seek to
investigate vision and visuality within either or both writers' short stories only.
 Papers should analyze, interpret and explain how the role of the visual
operates within these texts to create, qualify or complicate narrative meaning.
Please send inquiries and notices of interest to Randall S. Wilhelm at
rswil_at_aol.com.

         ==========================================================
              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 Sun Nov 05 2006 - 20:36:32 EST