CFP: [General] ACLA Panel-"Arrivals and Depatures: Homer's Epics and Modernity"

full name / name of organization: 
Nicole M. Jowsey
contact email: 

CFP for ACLA Conference Panel, Long Beach, CA (April 24-27, 2008).

Panel: "Arrivals and Departures: Homer's Epics and Modernity"
Organizer: Nicole M. Jowsey, SUNY Buffalo

Homer’s epics are structured by the notions of arrival and departure. In
the Iliad, the arrival of the Achaians with their hero, Achilleus, to the
shores of Ilion discloses the workings of fate not only for particular
characters of the epic, but for humanity in general, since it shows us the
nature of our mortality. The Odyssey, on the other hand, tells the story of
departure and homecoming, in the trials and tribulations Odysseus and his
fellow comrades undergo on their return after the war. Both poems discuss
what is at stake in war and what happens to those who arrive at a land’s
shore to fight: will they ever depart for home, or will they leave the
earth itself in dying for glory. Friendship, community, oaths, betrayal,
memory, and blood are some of the related issues that develop alongside.

This panel seeks papers that discuss the ways in which the Homeric epics
relate to modernity as they push us to think through the consequences of
one’s arriving and/or departing. Possible topics for papers include, but
certainly are not limited to: the affects/effects of war, the evolution of
the tragic hero from Achilleus to the present, the relation of fate to
arrival/departure from a place, the stakes in homecoming, and the more
general relation between the ancient world and the moderns that is
disclosed through these issues of war, fate, and community.

Please send abstracts (250 word max.) via the ACLA website:

(http://www.acla.org/submit/)

Abstracts are due no later than November 15, 2007.
Contact nmjowsey_at_buffalo.edu with any questions.

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Received on Thu Oct 25 2007 - 22:03:24 EDT