cfp.english.upenn.edu

On the 8-9 April 2011, Brunel University will hold the ‘New Cultures of Ageing Conference’, an interdisciplinary event focusing on representations of ageing in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Keynote speakers include Fay Weldon and Will Self. For more information about the conference, please visit:
http://www.brunel.ac.uk/about/acad/sa/artsub/english/engresearch/fcmap/c...

Call for Papers:
The Science Fiction and Ageing panel at the ‘New Cultures of Ageing’ conference invites submissions that examine the theme of ageing in works of Science, Fantasy, Dystopian and Speculative Fiction. For many years, authors have sought to explore, challenge perceptions of and predict the future of the human ageing process; Science Fiction authors in particular, have engaged with this subject, exploring themes such as:
• Immortality;
• Artificial (and natural) life-extension;
• Death and the afterlife;
• The embellished and adapted body.
The panel already includes a paper on portrayals of ageing in the ‘Culture series’ by acclaimed Science Fiction writer, Iain M. Banks, but many other texts from the genre offer possibilities; for example:

• Greybeard by Brian Alldis (Faber and Faber, 1964);
• 334 by Thomas Disch (MacGibbon and Kae, 1972);
• Holy Fire by Bruce Sterling (Bantam, 1996);
• Rollback by Robert J. Sawyer (Tor, 2007);
• Chalcot Crescent by Fay Weldon (Corvus, 2009);
• Riser by Rebecca E. Smith (Barnes and Noble, 2010);

Papers may wish to consider the above themes, novels and authors, but are by no means restricted by them.
All papers accepted for the panel will be published in a post-conference collection entitled 'Fiction and Ageing', which will probably be published online in the journal EnterText.

For consideration, please submit expressions of interest and a 200 word abstract to joseph.norman@brunel.ac.uk no later than DECEMBER 1st 2010.