Concordia University - Department of English - Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Fourth Annual Graduate Colloquium
March 24, 2006

Theme: The Mirror in/as Literature

Mirrors can reflect or distort reality. They can capture an image as
well as
propose an alternative to materiality. Is the object in the mirror a
subject?
Or is it a reified sign locked in a symbolic order? The mirror can be
a site
of desire or terror. Using the mirror as trope – or the trope as
mirror – we
are interested in exploring these internal/external dualities and
other "mirrorings" as they relate to literature, ontology, history
and so on.
Jean Baudrillard has called Marxism the mirror of political economy;
Lawrence
Ferlingetti says "a poet is a mirror walking down a strange street."
What
compels us to think in terms of mirrors, and what does this
motivation tell us
about the nature of representation, (re)production, images and
ourselves?

The 4th annual Concordia University Graduate Colloquium is seeking
papers that
explore and articulate themes, roles and issues associated with
reflexivity
throughout literature. We welcome discussions surrounding – though not
limited to – the following areas:

• Creating/subverting the self through reflections
• Representations and distortions
• Fracturing and fragmentation
• Self-recognition (or lack thereof)
• The "gaze" and its implications
• Sight and blindness and their importance in self-determination
• Narcissism, desire and/or the significance of image in identity
• The Double
• Literature as mirror, mimesis and aesthetic theory
• Beyond the mirror: imagination, delirium and alternatives

Please send a 200-300 word abstract by Monday, January 23, 2006 to:

Colloquium: The Mirror
c/o Department of English, Concordia University
1455 de Maisonneuve Blvd. West, LB-501
Montreal, Quebec
H3G 1M8

by email: colloquiumconcordia_at_gmail.com
by fax: 514-848-4501

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Received on Tue Dec 13 2005 - 08:39:00 EST