CFP - Affect and Literature

In keeping with the long-standing relationship between psychoanalytic =
discourses and literature, we are seeking submissions for a book =
applying Silvan S. Tomkins' affect theory to literary texts. A basic =
premise of this volume will be that human emotion is the foundation of =
literature, and that literature and imaginative culture have done much =
to enrich the emotional life of human beings. In literature, Tomkins =
observes, language used "for the expression, clarification and deepening =
of feelings" counters "the reduction in visibility of affects, effected =
by language which embeds, distorts or is irrelevant to the affects and =
which thereby impoverishes the affective life of man" (Affect 1: 219). =
Tomkins himself was deeply interested in the relationship between =
authors' lived experiences and their artistic output. He wrote =
penetrating analyses, for example, of the affective dynamics in various =
creative writers and thinkers, such as Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, Chekhov, =
Marx, Freud, Wittgenstein, Hemingway, and Eugene O'Neill.

Essays should address authors and/or literary texts, and/or theoretical =
issues pertaining to literary studies, in the light of Tomkins's =
understanding of the dynamics of the nine affects, and/or scene and =
script theory, and/or ideoaffective postures, and/or cognitive theory =
(or what Tomkins called "human being theory"). Essays may make use as =
well of developments and adaptations of Tomkins's work, such as Donald =
Nathanson's conception of the compass of shame and of the cognitive =
phases of shame. Essays should be limited to 10,000 words. Completed =
essays or proposals should be sent to Joseph Adamson =
(adamsonj_at_mcmaster.ca) and Duncan Lucas (lucasd_at_mcmaster.ca).

Deadline for submissions: 31 March 2004.

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Received on Thu Oct 02 2003 - 02:06:22 EDT