cfp.english.upenn.edu

This year's Science and Fiction panel at M/MLA will consider representations of the posthuman. Of particular interest will be papers that consider the posthuman from the standpoint of biotechnologies and their impact on our thinking of what it means to be human. One concrete way of considering this issue is to imagine Frankenstein’s monster in the 21st century. The monster did its best to escape its constructedness and assert a semblance of humanity. Is it possible for any body—human or machine, real or fictional, sane or insane—to do the same today? If not, where does that leave "humanity”? Please send 250 word abstracts to Todd Comer, Defiance College (tcomer@defiance.edu), or D. Harlan Wilson, Wright State-Lake Campus (david.wilson@wright.edu), by April 15.

Midwest Modern Language Association
http://www.uiowa.edu/~mmla/
November 12-15, 2009
St. Louis, Missouri