cfp.english.upenn.edu

Archives, Texts, and Memory
(Re)Connecting Modernism
Panel Proposal, MSA 2010
Vancouver, BC

George Bornstein has asked, “If the Mona Lisa is in Paris at the Louvre, where is King Lear?” This panel seeks to explore the question from the perspective of modernism, generally. Across recent years there has been a marked interest in exploring modernism at and in it points of production. But little has been asked about where in fact these points are today and how the very fact of modernisms’ material fragmentation across the world (and across new media) is shaping (and reshaping) our continued interpretation of its process. Further, it is important to consider how the continued reach of modernism (across media as well cultural and class boundaries) requires our continued search for its evidences in new forms and places (libraries, archives and institutions of social and creative memory).
Papers might explore topics including: how the migration of material modernism into digital form has allowed for a new connectivity of modernisms “traces” but one that is often independent of its materiality; how recent trends in the formation of archives and principally the commodification of modernist Collections (Norman Mailler etc.) is effecting future access and interpretation to the gestation of works; how the composition of archival and textual collections (Salman Rushdie) to include manuscript, text, and digital information may threaten future access to modernist texts and manuscripts; and, how the evolving strategies of archival practice is reshaping research strategies as well as the practice of historiography.

Conference Location: Victoria, B.C., Canada
Conference Starts: November 11, 2010
Conference Ends: November 14, 2010

Abstract of 200 words and brief bio to be sent to Ben Alexander: Benjamin.Alexander@qc.cuny.edu no later than May 1st.