cfp.english.upenn.edu

Jean-Francois Lyotard writes, "We have paid a high enough price for the nostalgia of the whole [...] let us be witnesses to the unpresentable; let us activate the differences and save the honor of the name." How are "nostalgia" and the "whole" linked to terror and to the cinematic form? And how does film--if at all--confront the "unpresentable?" What is the “ethical” nature of this confrontation? Do death, birth, and God remain unpresentable today or have they also fallen prey to a nostalgic closure? Papers on the Coens, Christopher Nolan, Tarantino, Peter Weir, and less mainstream directors are of particular interest.

Please send 250 word abstracts to Todd Comer, Defiance College, (tcomer@defiance.edu) by June 1, 2010.

Midwest Modern Language Association Annual Conference
http://www.luc.edu/mmla/chicago2010.html
November 4-7, 2010
Chicago, Illinois