cfp.english.upenn.edu

Very quickly after September 11, 2001, fiction writers were asked to responding to the attacks. Various writers’ reactions were expected and anxiously awaited while other authors were harshly criticized for their decisions to represent the events of the day, respond to the resulting trauma, or criticize the causes/motivations behind such tragedy.

This panel aims to address literature produced after September 11, 2001, whether the literature represents the attacks, address America as a changed country, criticize American exceptionalism, or treat the events of that day as a conspicuous absence. Papers may choose to respond to SAMLA’s overarching theme for the year – Travel, Immigration, and Exile – or they may respond to other important considerations in post-9/11 literature, including but not limited to:
- Changing ideas of space/boundaries in a post-9/11 world.
- The ethics involved in representing tragedy.
- Trauma sustained as a result of the attacks.
- New American exceptionalism in relation to the post-9/11 world.
- Ideas of containment/Cold War mentality in post-9/11 literature.
- Changed ideas of commemoration/memorialization.
- The problems/uses of theory in relation to post-9/11 literature.

Please send a 250-word abstract and a short CV to Victoria M. Bryan at Victoria.M.Bryan@gmail.com by June 15, 2012.