The Philip Roth Society invites papers for a panel on Philip Roth and the "Other Europe" at the Modern Language Association International Symposium in Dusseldorf, Germany from June 23-25, 2016.

In the 1970s Philip Roth was the general editor of Penguin's Writers from the Other Europe series, bringing to English readers texts by authors from then communist Middle and East Europe such as Ludvik Vaculik, Danilo Kiš, Milan Kundera, and Bruno Schulz. In this editorial capacity, Roth presented to Western readers a complex literary image of the Eastern Bloc, while addressing shifting notions of European identity that occurred after the Cold War. Roth did not end his involvement with Eastern European authors with his work as editor, but incorporated it into his fiction and nonfiction alike. With this in mind, the Roth Society invites papers for a panel at the MLA International Symposium "Other Europes: Migrations, Translations, Transformations." Papers can examine Roth's contribution to perceptions of the European periphery, the impact of the "other Europe" and its writers on Roth's work, and the influence of Roth as author or editor on other European authors. Other possible topics include, but are not limited to: representations of the immigration and assimilation of European DPs; the politics of language and translation; Roth's European reception; Europe's economic, political, historical, and philosophical role in Roth's fiction and nonfiction; trauma and memory; European subjects and identities framed through discussions of religion, gender & sexuality, age, and the body.

Proposals/abstracts (not exceeding 300 words) for 20-minute papers should be emailed to the Roth Society Program Chair, Maggie McKinley, at mmckinle@harpercollege.edu by August 1, 2015. Please include a CV with institutional affiliation and contact information. To present a paper as a part of a Roth Society panel, participants must be members of the Philip Roth Society. For membership information, please see the Society's website at http://www.philiprothsociety.org.