cfp.english.upenn.edu

Proposals for papers are invited for the 35th annual conference of the International Association of Irish Literatures (IASIL) to be held at Leuven, 18 – 22 July 2011. The conference theme is 'Irish Literatures: Conflict and Resolution'.

Conflict and resolution occupy a central place in the Irish literary imagination. Indeed, conflicting or conflicted identities can be found in most literary texts, whether on the level of the family and the individual or on a national and global scale. The conflicts may be of a cultural, religious, political or psychological kind and the resolution can be peaceful or violent, instant or delayed. Yet conflict and resolution also play a role in the style and structure of literary texts or in the dynamics of literary history, think of the tensions between poetics or the struggle between tradition and the avant-garde. Conflict is vital in that perspective and resolution produces the original and the great.

This conference seeks to address the role of conflict and resolution in Irish literatures from a variety of different perspectives. It will consider such topics as
- divided loyalties and conflicting identities in literary texts
- identity and conflict/resolution
- conflict and resolution in poetics and literary tradition
- conflict and resolution as an element of plot and rhetoric
- relation between thematic and formal elements of conflict and resolution
- transgenerational conflict
- conflict and memory
- crime and punishment
- ritual dimensions of conflict and resolution
- conflict and resolution between genders
- the literary response to political conflicts and resolutions throughout Irish history
- the role of literary texts in political conflicts and resolutions

Papers should be no longer than 20 mins. The organizers also particularly welcome proposals for panels of 3 or 4 papers. Please send a proposal, of ca 200 words per paper, to: hedwig.schwall@arts.kuleuven.be before 17 March 2011.

Confirmed plenary speakers are
Marianne Elliott, University of Liverpool
Margaret Harper, Limerick University
Eamonn Hughes, Queen's University Belfast
Pádraig Ó Macháin, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies
Mary O’Malley will read from her poetry.

For more information see http://www.irishstudies.kuleuven.be/