Call for Papers: Literary Aesthetics and Theory in Asian American
Writing (12/15/02; 05/01/03; collection)

This collection of essays addresses the place of literary aesthetics and
literary theory in Asian American writing and criticism. The volume
contends that in order to fully participate in the larger landscape and
critical discourse of American literature, Asian American literary
criticism must move beyond and across its current dominant negotiation
with cultural studies and sociological approaches to literature to
deploy questions of writerly performance and authorial interventions in
American literary traditions and development. While keeping historical
and materialist concerns within critical sight, analysis of Asian
American literature must engage issues of aesthetics, genre, and form,
and formulate/utilize theories that illustrate how Asian American
literary works contribute to contemporary discussions of aesthetics and
representation. The essays should address, as George Levin suggests
elsewhere, the recuperation of "the distinctive value of literature
without losing crucial insights provided by ideological criticism and
contemporary theory."

What is the place of literary aesthetics in Asian American narrative or
poetic discourse? What role does the "literary" play in our reading and
appreciation of the nuances of Asian American authorial production?
These concerns can be widely interpreted to formulate essays that
address one or more of the following, and support their theses with
actual engagements with a literary text or texts: How does Asian
American writing and criticism contribute to the larger discourse of
literary aesthetics and to the history of the aesthetic? How does Asian
American literary criticism negotiate the relationship between literary
theory and cultural studies, or between literary aesthetics and
ideology? Has the intersection between these perspectives been a valid
and useful one? What meta-critical approaches to current Asian American
criticism can be developed? How does Asian American literature partake
of or contribute to current theoretical innovations? How do genre
studies, narrative poetics, or linguistic approaches help read Asian
American texts? Does Asian American writing generate/invite renewed
approaches to issues of representation and aesthetics? What links does
Asian American literature demonstrate, on a literary and aesthetic
level, with other ethnic American literatures?

500-word abstracts, accompanied by a short vita, are due on December
15th, 2002. Final papers (5000-6000 pages, MLA Style), are due on May
1st, 2003.

Please address inquiries and send abstracts to the editors of the
volume: Sue-Im Lee, English Department, Temple University, Anderson
Hall, 10th Floor (022-29), 1114 W. Berks St., Philadelphia, PA
19122-6090, USA, email: leesi_at_temple.edu and Rocio G. Davis, Modern
Languages Department, University of Navarre, Pamplona 31080, Spain.
email: rgdavis_at_unav.es.

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Received on Thu Sep 19 2002 - 14:41:47 EDT