Call for Papers - Panel: Digital Transitions, 28-30 June, 2012, Cork, Ireland

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Comparative Literature Association of Ireland
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Call for Papers
Panel: Digital Transitions

Comparative Literature Association of Ireland, First International Conference, Transitions in Comparative Studies; 28-30 June 2012, University College Cork, Ireland

In the wake of the explosive arrival of the internet and associated new media in the general public consciousness and use during the past decade, comparatists find themselves presented with a vast number of new possibilities, but also with new challenges. Visual art is no longer confined to forms such as painting and sculpture, but can now also be produced digitally. Virtual worlds call for questions about our understanding of space. Electronic literature weaves word and image together in new, innovative ways. New forms of storytelling take place in video games, on interactive websites and on social media. As an example, in 2010, the Royal Shakespeare Company, together with the production company Mudlark, staged a modern adaptation of Romeo and Juliet on the micro-blogging site Twitter.

Despite the surge of such experimentations and developments, the comparative field has been slow to respond to them. Cultural and communication studies have addressed the digital worlds, but literary studies in particular have mostly refrained from engaging with them. This panel situates the encounter of the digital by/with/in literary scholarship in the wider context of intermediality, with its issues and challenges.

This panel welcomes papers on both theory and practice of digital intermediality. It invites comparative analyses of intermedial works such as interactive narratives, video/online games, electronic literature or digital art, or the representation of the above in literature. Equally, it encourages more theoretical approaches to the topic. Examples of potential frameworks might include applications of narratology, relationship between word and image, space theory, the role of comparative literature in digital studies, and issues of availability and approachability of the digital world.

Please submit your abstract of 300 words and a short biography to Ms Nina Shiel at nina.shiel3@mail.dcu.ie by 16 March 2012. More information about the conference is available at http://www.complit.org/cfp.html .