cfp.english.upenn.edu

The American Humor Studies Association seeks proposals for a round-table session at the American Literature Association Conference at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco, Embarcadero Center, on May 27-30, 2010.

Session 1—
With Laughter for All: Toward a New Anthology of American Humor
Roundtable Session

For a long time, many humor scholar-teachers have been frustrated by the lack of a humor anthology that serves our teaching needs. Blair's survey/anthology is a great work, but it is now 75 years old. Cohen and Dillingham have done the Southwest, but there are other American humor traditions equally deep and rich; a comprehensive anthology would bring together pieces that are currently difficult to find or simply inaccessible.

The question becomes, then, what should a useful contemporary American humor survey anthology look like? What pieces should be included and why? Are there important special cases that deserve a new allocation of space? How big should such an anthology be, and how might it be organized? Does it maintain dedication to the print medium only? How would it invite future students to go further into the field and allow enough close study in the classroom to contribute to their knowledge?

This roundtable seeks participants to offer an eight-to-ten-minute presentation of their vision of what a contemporary American humor anthology should cover, including a brief list of “must have” pieces. Our goal would be to try to find some consensus picks and start to gel a Table of Contents.

Please send queries or abstracts and contact information to:

David E. E. Sloane, University of New Haven, Session Chair
DSloane@newhaven.edu

Deadline: January 20, 2010