Navigations and Narrations: Exploring Space and Place, 04/03/15 (Deadline: 02/17/15)
The University of Texas at Arlington is proud to announce the 3rd Annual UTA English Graduate Conference on April 3, 2015
Title: "Navigations and Narrations: Exploring Space and Place"
Keynote Speaker: Dr. Nathanael O'Reilly, Texas Christian University
Call for Papers
"Location is the crossroads of circumstance, the proving ground of 'What happened? Who's here? Who's coming'—and that is the heart's field" (Eudora Welty, "Place in Fiction). These words locate the ever-important role played by both space and place in texts. Textual places hold literary and rhetorical power, informing readerly interpretations and influencing textual meaning in ways that other textual aspects cannot. Place is context; as Welty says, it is the "crossroads of circumstance." It is at this crossroads where we seek to navigate the various implications space and place have in various fields of study.
We seek papers and presentations that confront textual elements of space and place in all of their varietal forms. Rather than being limited to fictional narratives, we seek studies that look at all different types of real and imaginary space, including geocriticism and geocritical approaches, cultural, critical, and literary geographies, and the poetics of space. How do we, as readers and scholars, influence, conceive of, construct, and manipulate space(s)? In what ways do these real and imaginary textual locales influence a text or, in some cases, become a text themselves? Inversely, how do these places sometimes end up telling stories of their own? From Shakespeare's depiction of the Thames, to the geographical configuration of a composition classroom, the spaces in which our lives—and our readings—take place have unique implications on the way we perceive and the way we interpret.
Along with these questions, possible topics include place and space in the context of the following areas:
- Digital Humanities
- Ecology and Literature
- Literary Theory
- Composition Studies
- Narrative Theory
Along with these topics, we also welcome papers in all other traditional areas of study in literature, composition and rhetoric, and pedagogy. All genres, time periods, and areas of literary study are encouraged. We welcome traditional abstracts of 200-400 words, along with panel proposals—please include an abstract for the entire panel, along with brief explanations of the intended presentations. Please send abstracts, along will all other inquiries, to uta.egsa.conference@gmail.com. Deadline for submissions is February 17, 2015.
**Dr. O'Reilly is a scholar, teacher, and poet, specializing in post-colonial studies and Anglophone (especially Australian) literature. He is currently president of American Association of Australasian Literary Studies. His most recent works include Tim Winton: Critical Essays (co-editor) and Exploring Suburbia: The Suburbs in the Contemporary Australian Novel.