cfp.english.upenn.edu

The Humanities Center at Wayne State University invites papers on the theme, “Apocalyptic Imagination” for its Fall Symposium scheduled to take place on November 16, 2012 in Detroit, MI.

A focal point for the apocalyptic imagination in much popular discourse, the year 2012 provides an appropriate occasion to consider the way the idea of apocalypse functions within and informs our collective historical imagination. Numerous politicians, writers, religious groups, as well as works of literature, film, and the culture industry in general now regularly deploy imagery of cataclysmic destruction and the end-of-the-world. This symposium will explore a variety of inter-related issues in order to theorize and historicize the persistent fascination with apocalypse. We invite papers that examine the apocalyptic imaginary as related to topics including but not limited to the following: the “end of days” and popular fiction; religion and theology; disaster capitalism; economic, financial, and technological meltdown; global warming; disease and pestilence; media, war, terror, environment, millennial fantasies, and effects of apocalypse on political thought and organization. Interdisciplinary and comparative approaches are encouraged.
Please submit an abstract of approximately 200 words and a short cv to Sarika Chandra (schandra@wayne.edu) by March 8, 2012.