_Samuel Beckett's Endgame_, ed. Mark S. Byron, Dialogue 1 (Amsterdam and
Atlanta: Rodopi Press). This book of essays is the first volume in a new
series announced by Rodopi Press under the general editorship of Michael
J. Meyer. This volume will offer new and experienced scholars the
opportunity to present alternative readings and approaches to Samuel
Beckett's _Endgame_. The goal of the collection is to establish a
dialogue between essays by younger scholars (MA, ABD, six years or less
from the PhD, Lecturer, Assistant Professor or equivalent) and by
established or expert scholars (Associate Professor, Professor or
equivalent, and who have published monographs and articles in leading
journals). Essays are sought that address inherently controversial
topics: i.e. topics that have generated significant levels of debate in
the past or that cultivate new approaches and insights into _Endgame_.
Potential topics might include:

- Blurred generic boundaries: is _Endgame_ more comedy than tragedy, or
more farce than either? How might one's critical or theoretical stance
help determine one's reading of the play through any particular genre?
- Is _Endgame_ an example of late modernist despair, or postmodernist
celebration of the end of such master narratives as history, 'Man,'
science, art, literature, progress?
- _Endgame_ might be said to be Beckett's most complete play. How does
it tally against, or in concert with, his other major plays, notably
_Waiting for Godot_ and _Krapp's Last Tape_?
- Symbolic structures in _Endgame_: binaries or dyads - two acts, two
major characters, two parents in two dustbins, two windows; the monad
(and its theological residues) - monologue, the single room of the action.
- How do history and narrative interact? Hamm recounts what passes for
autobiography in the conditional tense, and always makes clear he is
telling a story. Is this gesture an appropriation of history or a
concession to the conditional nature of the historical record?
- _Endgame_ implies a critique of several philosophical and aesthetic
movements: naturalism, realism, Romanticism, classicism, Enlightenment
progress, empiricism, rationalism. Are there any alternatives left in
the world of the play?
- Performing _Endgame_: in a play that finds hollow much of the fabric
of the world, and the ways of knowing it, can there be a 'true' reading
of the script, or is this too an illusion? What kinds of challenges do
actors, directors, lighting technicians, and set designers face in
productions of this play?

Inquiries and topic proposals can be directed to the editor at
msb27_at_u.washington.edu and will be fielded until 31 May, 2004; completed
manuscripts (20-25 pages; Chicago style; 2 hard copies in Word) by 1
December, 2004.

===============================================
From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List
CFP_at_english.upenn.edu
Full Information at
http://www.english.upenn.edu/CFP/
or write Erika Lin: elin_at_english.upenn.edu
===============================================
Received on Wed Jan 21 2004 - 01:46:27 EST