cfp.english.upenn.edu

The recent economic crisis coincides with flourishing of new realism across different media in Europe and North America [Frazen’s The Corrections in literature (2001), Audaird’s The Prophet (2008) in film, Simon and Burns’ The Wire (2002-2008) in television]. This realism distinguishes itself by an extensive preoccupation with poverty, migration, crime and urban violence while it stylistically appropriates violence as a commentary on the disposability of bodies under neo-liberal economy. The time seems ripe to explore what kind of realism is being produced in our historical moment. This seminar explores the prospects and limits of realism as a narrative mode that reflects on the contemporary capitalism, its trajectory, moments of crisis and recovery. We seek papers that focus on film, media and literary studies and their specification of realism in the current financial moment.

Papers may take up questions such as:

* What makes realism, despite the fact that it has been the target of various movements through modernism and postmodernism, still relevant and thriving representation mode?
* In what ways do realist narratives comment on neoliberal biopolitics, labor practices, and finance?
* Why are realist narratives consumed eagerly in Europe and in the United States?
* To what extent does commercialization of realism reaffirm liberal subjectivity?
* How does the cultural market shape realist images of migrants, minorities, diaspora, women and queers?
* Are available theoretical frameworks (Lukacs, Williams, Jameson and Baucom’s works among others) sufficient to explain the relationship between global financial capitalism and production of realist texts?

Please submit papers directly on the ACLA website
http://www.acla.org/submit/index.php

Deadline: November 23, 2009.