cfp.english.upenn.edu

Special Topic Panel: "Traumadies: Where Trauma and Comedy Converge."

The “Traumadies” panel invites papers on satirical/humorous approaches to trauma in literature and film. We’re interested in the moment where trauma and comedy converge, whether as a coping/defense mechanism, or a compression (in the sense of postmodern time-space compression) of the “comedy equals tragedy plus time” idiom, and what that says about the role of comedy in the postmodern era. In literature, some examples of this include David Foster Wallace’s tome INFINITE JEST (in which the alcoholic scion of the Incandenza family rigs his microwave oven to commit a particularly traumatic suicide, and Hal, the thirteen-year-old son who first discovers him goes through excruciating, yet humorous, grief counseling sessions) and short story “Girl With Curious Hair,” the "airborne toxic event" in DeLillo's WHITE NOISE, Junot Diaz's BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO, and Woody Allen's short story, "The Schmeed Memoirs" in which he mocks the Holocaust by casting the story of WWII through the eyes of Hitler's barber.

In film, we have a multitude of examples of this, such as the films of Anders Thomas Jensen (ADAM’S APPLES, THE GREEN BUTCHERS, and IN CHINA THEY EAT DOGS) ,the Coen brothers (RAISING ARIZONA, THE BIG LEBOWSKI, A SERIOUS MAN), Ray McKinnon’s 2001 short film THE ACCOUNTANT, and Craig Gillespie’s LARS AND THE REAL GIRL, to name a few.

Submit a 250 word abstract to Andrew H. Banecker (abanec1@tigers.lsu.edu) with “Traumedies Panel” in the subject header by December 1, 2010.
Where: Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA
When: March 3-4, 2011
For more information, go to: www.mardigras2011.blogspot.com