cfp.english.upenn.edu

The Society for Contemporary Literature invites 300-word abstracts for presentations at the annual conference of the American Literature Assoc. The program committee welcomes abstracts on any aspect of American literature published in the last 25 years.

As a recently founded society, we are especially interested in discovering significant new contributors to prose, poetry, and other modes of literature. Starting points for discussion include the following:
• Theoretical approaches/methodology
• Lineages/influences/comparative studies
• Genre blurring & theories of genre as applied to contemporary writers
• Textual analysis
• Ethnicity, gender, narrative identity
• Post-9/11 literature: parameters, usefulness of this category
• Literature of loss, unease
• Developments in the graphic novel
• Memoir, creative nonfiction, emerging genres
Please send 300-word abstracts and one-paragraph bio statements to Karen Weekes (kweekes@psu.edu) by December 31, 2012; submissions should be sent via email with the subject line “SCL ALA 2013 abstract.” Note that scholars are limited to one presentation at this conference; notifications will be sent by Jan. 15, 2013, in order to allow responses to other panels or the general CFP by their deadlines.