In six or eight of her stories from the Vietnam War years, Kate Wilhelm made a name for herself as one
of the most aggressive critics of the culture of violence in the military-industrial state. But her work at
that time was hardly unique in her oeuvre; from as early as the 1950s, with the suicidal explosion that
ends her second published story, Wilhelm's fiction has been engaged in analyses of the violent mindset,
of how individual and societal violence interrelate, of the cognitive basis of violent personalities, and of
the personal effects of impersonal violence. The extent to which outward-directed violence is destined
to become self-destruction, the nature of symbolic violence, the roots and effects of soul-murder, the
psychological consequences of militarism, the social background of domestic violence, and the
capitalist framework of commercial violence all receive detailed explorations in Wilhelm's fiction,
sometimes before nonfictional discourses have even noticed them. Papers on violence in Wilhelm, with
a particular focus on the first half of her career, are solicited for an academic panel at WisCon, 26-29
May 2006. Send abstracts by 25 February to Josh Lukin (jblukin_at_temple.edu)

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Received on Mon Jan 30 2006 - 17:45:24 EST