English III (Eng. Lit after 1900) Permanent Session: "Contemporary Realisms and Realities"

49th Annual Midwest Modern Language Association Convention
November 8-11, 2007
Renaissance Cleveland Hotel, Cleveland, Ohio
2007 Convention Theme: "Revisiting Realisms"

James Wood's label "hysterical realism" has generated the greatest debate, but in recent years a plethora of terms have been suggested to categorize contemporary British novels. These include dirty realism, postmodern realism, deep realism, spectacle realism, fiduciary realism, hyper-realism, and precocious realism, to name only a few. This panel seeks to examine how contemporary British novelists have sought to depict their realities since the 1980s. Prospective panelists can explore the following questions in their proposals or raise entirely new ones of their own: How have living writers engaged recent political and cultural developments with regard to classical conceptions of realism and mimesis (Lodge, Levine, Auerbach, etc.)? How has the oft-mentioned Dickens Revival proved constructive or limiting? Finally, how, if at all, does contemporary realism signal a break with postmodern aesthetics?

250 word emailed proposals to Gavin Keulks (at keulksg_at_wou.edu) by April 16, 2007.

For more information, please consult the M/MLA website at http://www.uiowa.edu/~mmla/ and the online call for papers at http://www.uiowa.edu/~mmla/call_2007.html

Gavin Keulks
Western Oregon University
http://www.wou.edu/~keulksg/
http://www.martinamisweb.com/

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Received on Thu Mar 08 2007 - 22:44:05 EST