CFP: Evolutions and Genre

for a session at "evolutions" conference, Edinburgh,U.K., 22-23 September 2006

The idea that genres are dynamic rather than static dominates modern
genre theory. This panel invites contributions that trace the complex
set of transformations that literary genres undergo as they migrate
into new geographic, cultural and linguistic environments. Among the
questions that could be addressed are the following: What aspects
accelerate the evolution of some genres as opposed to others by making
them transportable and/or translatable? What is the evolutionary
interaction of the function or cultural work that genres perform to
their form or poetics? How do genres behave when they are in ascendance
or in decline?

Papers may examine the evolution of traditional genres, the
resurrection of genres presumed dead, as well as the emergence of
counter and hybrid genres. Given that genres are culturally constructed
and ideologically laden, we are also particularly interested in the
appropriation of traditionally patriarchal and Western genres for
projects of feminisation and decolonisation with emphasis on the role
of generic mixture, deformation, translation and parody as agents of
literary (r)evolution. Papers which consider genres dealing explicitly
with the development or evolution of the self and with life writing,
such as the (auto)biography and the Bildungsroman, are especially
welcome.

Applicants who are interested in submitting a paper for this panel
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 this panel, please contact Stella
Bolaki at the following e-mail address: <S.Bolaki_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 15 2006 - 12:34:12 EDT