CFP: Realism's Others (11/30/05; ACLA, 3/23/06-3/26/06)

full name / name of organization: 
Geoff Baker
contact email: 

"Realism's Others"
ACLA 2006, Princeton University

Seminar Organizer(s): Geoffrey Baker, Rutgers
University

George Levine, in "The Realistic Imagination,"
describes Anthony Trollope's realism as "rigorous only
in its exclusion of extremes, or in its assimilation
of them. . . . All kinds of extremes enter on the
periphery of the Trollopian vision, but all are
contained within the possibilities of sheer plod,
which will assert the primacy of conventional and
arbitrary order against the rebellious energies that
provoke admiration at times but must be absorbed"
(203). What Levine says here of Trollope is often
broadened to literary realism writ large, as a
narrative mode primarily organized around the
evocation and subsequent disciplining of supposed
extremes.

This panel will discuss realism's practice of othering
and the sorts of others either summoned or created in
the construction of realist narrative. Levine's
vocabulary here--"assimilation," "rebellion"--inspires
some preliminary questions one might consider:

–Who, what, when, why, and how are realism's others?

–How do approaches to gender, class, ethnicity,
sexuality, nation or species contribute to otherness
in a realist text?

–Do various national realisms offer significantly
different strategies of othering?

–In what ways do realism’'s others differ from
those of other narrative modes?

–What role do imperialism and globalization play?

–Does magical realism address these concerns
differently?

–What does science contribute to the notion of
otherness in a realist text?

–Do different avatars of literary realism (say,
novels, poems, plays) portray their others
differently?

–Are realism's others constructed spatially?

Comparative presentations and presentations on any and
all national literatures are welcome, as are proposals
that consider realism not as a strictly periodized
movement or that engage developments of/against
realism (e.g., magical realism).

Sumbit proposals online before 30 November, 2005, at
the following link:
http://aslamp01.princeton.edu/%7Eoitdas/acla06/

The ACLA 2006 general website:
http://webscript.princeton.edu/~acla06/site/

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Received on Sun Oct 23 2005 - 23:10:05 EDT

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