cfp.english.upenn.edu

What secularism means and does, and which conceptions of secularism should be revisited, are questions that have become part of a larger interdisciplinary conversation in which this panel seeks to participate. Its questions include: what are the secularisms of the past? What negotiations with religion take place in eighteenth century texts? Under what conditions can a state, a mode of thought, a work, or a genre be called secular? This panel seeks abstracts for papers dealing with definitions of secularism in various eighteenth-century literary contexts. In particular, papers that discuss the relationship between secularism and Enlightenment, secularism and religious identity, or secularism and religious tolerance, are especially desired. Please send 250-500 word abstracts for twenty-minute papers to Nicole Garret, State University of New York, Stony Brook, Nbgarret@gmail.com by September 30, 2012.