UPDATE: 17th Annual EGSA Mardi Gras Conference at LSU (12/15/06; 2/16/07-2/17/07)

full name / name of organization: 
Matthew Landers
contact email: 

The deadlines for the 17th Annual EGSA Mardi Gras Conference have been
extended to December 15th. The following cfps are effected by this
change. Please keep in mind that the conference takes place during the
Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans, so be prepared to have a great
time.

LSU EGSA Mardi Gras Conference on Language and Literature.
Feb. 16-17, 2007
Lod Cook Alumni Center
Baton Rouge, LA

Keynote Speaker: Timothy Brennan, Professor of Comparative Literature,
Cultural Studies, and English, The University of Minnesota.
Selected Publications: Wars of Position: Cultural Politics of Left and
Right (2005), Ed. Music in Cuba (2001), At Home in the World:
Cosmopolitanism Now (1997).

1.) "Members Only: Gatekeepers and the Future of Literary Studies"

The English Graduate Student Association (EGSA) welcomes submissions
on a variety of topics relating to language, literature, film,
cultural studies and pedagogy, for its 17th annual EGSA Mardi Gras
Conference.

The theme of this year's conference is the future role of
"Gatekeepers" in literary studies. According to usage, the term
"Gatekeeper" refers to a select group of individuals who set the
standards for Membership and punditry among literary theorists. One
frequently encounters colleagues that categorize themselves in the
context of one theoretical school or another; the question remains,
however: Is the status that one gains through self-identification on a
par with that granted by "endorsed" Membership. In an attempt to
address this question, we are seeking papers for a special
"Chancellor's Panel," which will examine such topics as:
theoretical/political allegiance within academia, internal delineation
of authority within specific theories, and the ideological
construction of academic boundaries.

By way of explanation, we offer the following list (by no means
comprehensive) for consideration:

-"Theory as Subjectivity"
-"Intellectual Succession and the Revision of Gatekeepers"
-"The Delineation of Authority and Space within Theoretical Movements"
-"The Privatizing Role of Jargon in Literary Studies"
-"Sharing the Same Space?: Multiculturalists, Post-Colonialists, and
Atlanticists"
-"The Future of [insert theory here]: Considering the Long-term
Relevance of Theoretical Methodologies"
-" Beyond the Gate: Exploring the Horizons of World Literature"
-"Benjamin and the Post-secular"
-"Keys to the Kingdom: Who is Defining Contemporary Academic Feminism?"

In 2006, we were privileged to host Terry Eagleton, whose keynote
address examined the challenges of conveying theoretical
considerations from academic environments to the realm of social
praxis. This year we are pleased to present Timothy Brennan, whose
latest book, Wars of Position: Cultural Politics of Left and Right,
makes him uniquely qualified to speak about the future role of
ideology and politics in academia.

Visit us on the web at: <http://www.lsu.edu/student_organizations/egsamardigras>

A detailed 250-word abstract should be submitted by December 15, 2006,
to Matthew Landers at middlestate_at_gmail.com. Papers should be 15
minutes in length. Please submit your abstract in the body of your
email. No attachments, please.

2.) "The Future of Literary Studies"

The 17th Annual EGSA Mardi Gras Conference is planning to host a
series of panels called, "The Future of […]." We are inviting
panelists to submit abstracts for papers that consider the present and
future relevance of various theoretical approaches to literary
studies—including: Marxism, Gender Studies, Feminism, Postcolonial
theory, Atlanticism, Aesthetics, New Historicism, etc. With regard to
the evolution of literary studies in the coming decades, we pose the
following questions: How significant a role will each existing
approach play in the future? How do the preceding methodologies intend
to adapt to changing academic, historical, political and cultural
opinions? What new theories (or hybrid approaches) are on the horizon?

When submitting your abstract, keep in mind that this panel is
intended to create polemical situations. We are inviting healthy
debate, and free speculation.

A detailed 250-word abstract should be submitted by December 15, 2006,
to Matthew Landers <middlestate_at_gmail.com>. Papers should be 15
minutes in length. Please submit your abstract in the body of your
email. No attachments, please.

3.) (Mis)appropriations: Shakespeare and the Politics of Literary Fashion

The 17th Annual EGSA Mardi Gras Conference is calling for papers that
discuss the various appropriations of Shakespeare in the current
literary milieu. Whether one talks about the universal choice of "The
Tempest" by Postcolonial scholars and Atlanticists, or the tendency of
Marxist scholars to concentrate on the political "histories," one
notices, in literary studies, the privileging of certain texts, always
from an ideological center. In accordance with the rules of fashion,
moreover, many plays in Shakespeare's canon go unstudied in the
university classroom, as other texts take their place.

This panel aims to examine the reasons behind the popularity of
certain Shakespearean texts, and the de-privileging of others. More
importantly, this panel proposes to examine the notion that certain
ideological appropriations have fallen short of the historical context
they claim to reestablish—and instead practice a less rigorous "history-lite."

A detailed 250-word abstract should be submitted by December 15, 2006,
to Matthew Landers <middlestate_at_gmail.com>. Papers should be 15
minutes in length. Please submit your abstract in the body of your
email. No attachments, please.

4.) Exploring Critical Shadow-Lines: Approaches to Joseph Conrad

The 17th annual EGSA Mardi Gras Conference invites paper submissions
for a panel on Joseph Conrad. Entitled "Exploring Critical
Shadow-Lines: Approaches to Joseph Conrad," this panel proposes to use
Conrad's body of work as a case study of how specific literary
theories can dominate the criticism currently being produced on an
author. Thus, papers are encouraged to address not only the manner in
which Conrad criticism is dominated by certain critical
approaches--e.g., New Criticism, Freudian Psychoanalysis,
Postcolonialism, etc.--but also to consider which approaches remain
relatively underused. All critical approaches are welcome, including
(but by no means limited to) Feminist, Marxist, Psychoanalytic,
Deconstructionist, Postcolonial, New Historicist, Aesthetic, Atlantic,
Queer, Ethical, etc. Papers could also examine the influence of
specific Conrad critics, such as F. R. Leavis, Thomas C. Moser, Ian
Watt, Edward Said, Frederick R. Karl, and Zdzislaw Najder (to name a
few). Papers are also welcome that address any pertinent aspect of
Conrad scholarship. Readings of specific works are also welcome, but
potential submitters are encouraged to explore works other than Heart
of Darkness.

Please send abstracts of 300 words or less to James Long (Department
of English, Louisiana State University) at jlong12_at_lsu.edu before
December 15, 2006. Presentations should be 15 minutes in length.

5.) "Political Lyric Writing in Elizabeth's Court"

This panel invites papers especially but not exclusively relating the
sonnet sequence to the English court. Typically lyric poetry is not
considered in the realm of political writings, so the purpose of this
panel is participate in a fruitful reconsideration of lyrical genre as
a
political tool.

A detailed 250-word abstract should be submitted by December 15, 2006,
to Sharon Higby, shigby1_at_lsu.edu. Papers should be 15 minutes in
length.

6.) "Tomorrow's English Department: Blurring the Divide Between
Literary and Composition Studies."

We welcome submissions for a session on the future of compostion
studies, "Tomorrow's English Department: Blurring the Divide Between
Literary and Composition Studies." Thoeretical or praxeological
papers could investigate a variety of topics including:

- Blurring discipline and genre in composition classrooms
- Uses of literature/reading in the first-year writing program
- Multi-media reading and literacy
- Teachers' roles as gatekeepers to the academic discourse community
- Compostition methodologies
- Post-identity theory in the composition classroom

A detailed 250 word abstract is due by December 15, 2006, and should
be e-mailed to Matthew Landers at middlestate_at_gmail.com. Please
submit your entry in the body of your email. No attachments, please.

7.) "Who are the Post-Southern 'Men of Letters?'"

In his address to Phi Beta Kappa at the University of Minnesota in
1952, Allen Tate argued that the "invention of standards . . . is a
moral obligation of the literary man." For Tate modernity meant
widespread cultural dehumanization and presented a threat to the
existence of literature itself. The position of the man of letters was
to cultivate the language of "communion," of self-knowledge, a
language set against the technological, controlling power-language of
"communication." To this end men and women of letters had a specific
purpose: "To keep alive the knowledge of ourselves with which the
literary arts continue to enlighten the more ignorant portion of
mankind (among whom one includes oneself), to separate them from other
indispensable modes of knowledge, and to define their limits, is the
intellectual and thus the social function of the writer. Here the man
of letters is a critic."

Tate spoke to his audience as a Southerner of a classical-Christian
tradition whose coherence was still largely accepted. In this panel,
we wish to consider the environment many critics have labeled the
"Post-South," an environment of seemingly interminable conflict. This
panel asks: what is the current position of the man of letters? Is it
still possible to cultivate a language of communion to "forward the
ends proper to man?"

A detailed 250-word abstract should be submitted by December 15, 2006,
to Matthew Landers <middlestate_at_gmail.com>. Papers should be 15
minutes in length. Please submit your abstract in the body of your
email. No attachments, please.

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Received on Sat Dec 09 2006 - 18:59:29 EST

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