cfp.english.upenn.edu

UPDATE: Mark Helprin’s Worlds (grad) (new submission deadline - 3/11/09; (dis)junctions, 4/3/09-4/4/09)

This call for papers is for a proposed panel at (dis)junctions, the University of California, Riverside’s 16th Annual Humanities Graduate Conference, which will be held on April 3-4, 2009. This year’s theme is “Brave New Worlds.”

This call is a broad search for papers on the works of the contemporary American author Mark Helprin, who, despite having won various awards for his novels and other stories, including A Soldier of the Great War, sadly receives relatively little attention from the literary community. Consequently, any and all aspects of Helprin criticism shall be considered for this panel. Possible topics include but are not limited to:

* analyses of individual novels
* the trajectory of his oeuvre
* his place in the canon of contemporary writers
* the Swan Lake series, and his role as a children’s writer
* issues of genre (magical realism, fairy tale, heroic epic, etc.)
* nostalgia and hope
* beauty and loss
* language and imagery

Please send abstracts of 200-250 words to Susana Brower at susana.disj@yahoo.com or maria.brower@email.ucr.edu by March 11, 2009. Please let me know of any potential A/V needs; every effort will be made to accommodate you.