cfp.english.upenn.edu

Paul Bowles is widely acknowledged as one of the twentieth century’s most skillful storytellers and imaginative composers of modern American music. His unsettling literary themes and expatriation to Morocco made him into a cult figure whose life and work continue to fascinate contemporary audiences.

By examining the interplay between literary, musical, visual and cultural texts, the conference aims at stimulating discussion on Bowlesian musical and literary themes, as well as cultural and anthropological issues and on the relationship between the artist’s challenging work and current inner and outer geographies.

Given the international and interdisciplinary academic mould of the conference, and the author’s polymath profile, we encourage contributions from scholars and artists of different fields and welcome suggestions for papers, panels and sessions, and also multimedia proposals.

SUGGESTED TOPICS:
• Bowles and Portugal (influences, writings, translations)
• Paul Bowles and Jane Bowles (interactions/interinfluences)
• American Existentialism (the Beats, American negativity, dissonance, crime, Modernism)
• The Maverick Tradition (rebels, individualism/community, Avant-garde, Anti-art)
• New American Music (trends, aesthetics, fictions)
• Literature and Other Arts (music, contemporary opera, spoken-word, film music, cinema)
• Gothic and the Grotesque (American gothic, horror, dark poiesis)
• Exile (Moroccan fiction/place/culture and travel)
• Literature and Anthropology (Anarchism, cultural clash; magic/smoking/religion)

250-word abstracts, or any queries, should be sent by May 15.

More information at the conference website: www.doyoubowles.com