'evolutions'
22-23 September 2006

A two-day international conference hosted by the School of Literatures,
Languages and Cultures at the University of Edinburgh

Keynote Speaker: Professor Simon Frith

The thing that hath been, it is that which shall be; and that which is
done is that which shall be done: and there is no new thing under the sun.
-Ecclesiastes 1:9

A revolution is not a dinner-party.
-Mao Zedong

We are causing the reversal of evolution.
-James Hart, Eugenic Manifesto

Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
-Bob Dylan, 'The Times They Are A-Changin' '

The evolution of 'evolutions' has taken us from the Bible to Mao, from
eugenics to rock music. For this conference we encourage speakers to
engage with both past and contemporary approaches to this broad theme,
addressing the idea of evolutions from a variety of different
perspectives. Academics and postgraduate students working in the fields
of theory, literature, film, culture, history, and the arts are welcome
to submit single papers and full panels for consideration. Topics may
include, but are not limited to, the following suggestions:

* Evolutions and revolutions
* Revolutions in form and genre
* From the local to the global
* Concept and travels
* Evolution of literary imagination
* Cyborgs and the post-human
* Darwinian theories of literary evolution
* Canon formation
* Evolutions of diaspora, memory, trauma
* Popular culture and evolution
* Rites of passage
* Ecoliterature and ecocriticism
* Life writing genres and new subjectivities
* Evolutions of oceanic traversal
* Degeneration
* Revision and translation
* Evolution and philosophy
* Literary forms and media
* Religion and evolution

Applicants who are interested in submitting a paper for 'evolutions'
should send a title and abstract of no more than 300 words accompanied
by a short CV to the following e-mail address:
<evolutions.conference_at_ed.ac.uk>. The deadline for submission is 15
July, and speakers whose proposals have been accepted will be notified
shortly after that. Papers delivered at the conference are expected to
be approximately 20 minutes long.

Selected papers from the conference will be collected and published in a
special issue of Forum, Postgraduate Journal of Culture and the Arts,
University of Edinburgh.

For more information please visit the conference website at
<http://forum.llc.ed.ac.uk/evolutions/>

If you have any questions concerning abstract submission please contact
us at the following e-mail address: <evolutions.conference_at_ed.ac.uk>.

This conference is being generously co-sponsored by Forum and the
University of Edinburgh.

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Received on Mon May 01 2006 - 08:48:13 EDT