cfp.english.upenn.edu

The Fourth Annual International Conference on Popular Romance Studies

The Pleasures of Romance

York, United Kingdom
27-29 September, 2012

Deadline Extended to May 30, 2012. Travel funding available.

Pleasure is continually disappointed, reduced, deflated, in favor of strong, noble values: Truth, Death, Progress, Struggle, Joy, etc. Its victorious rival is Desire: we are always being told about Desire, never about Pleasure.
--Roland Barthes

I adore simple pleasures. They are the last refuge of the complex.
--Oscar Wilde

In novels, films, TV, fan fiction, pop music, and other media, romance has been both consumed and derided because of the pleasures it imparts. Even those who deride or debunk romance may find, in that refusal, a pleasure of social distinction. Open to talks on any topic related to love in global popular media, now and in the past, this multi-disciplinary conference will also highlight the vexed issue of “pleasure” in popular romance texts, popular romance fandom, and popular romance studies.

All theoretical and empirical approaches are welcome, from affect studies and cognitive science to literary history, middlebrow studies, psychoanalysis, queer theory, and sociology. Proposals may focus on single authors, texts, songs, films, TV series, and marketing campaigns, or on broader, more theoretical approaches, including discussions of pedagogy. We are eager to receive proposals on older forms of popular romance (classical, medieval, early modern, etc.) and on love in Asian, African, Middle Eastern, and Latin American popular culture.

Submit proposals for individual papers, full panels, roundtables, interviews, or innovative presentations to conferences@iaspr.org by May 30, 2012. All proposals will be peer reviewed.

Travel grants will be available for presenters on a competitive basis.