Call for Papers

The Politics of the Western

41st Anniversary Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
April 7-11, 2010
Montreal, Quebec - Hilton Bonaventure

Despite its continued popularity as a genre, the western has not drawn much attention from scholars of American literature. Indeed, many of the genre's key players—writers like Owen Wister, Zane Grey, Dorothy M. Johnson, Walter Van Tilburg Clark, Jack Schaefer, A.B. Guthrie, Jr., and others—are conspicuously absent from the Norton Anthology of American Literature. Is this because the Western, with its masculine bias, its individualist heroes, and its Anglo-European monopolization of history, is inherently conservative? In view of answering this question, this panel invites papers that explore the political investments of the classic western. Of particular interest are papers that explore the ways in which the western may be seen to criticize, subvert, and oppose its own apparent generic tendency towards conservatism.

Please submit abstracts of approximately 250 words to Darren Millar at millardarren@gmail.com.

Deadline: September 30, 2009

Please include with your abstract:

Name and Affiliation
Email address
Postal address
Telephone number
A/V requirements (if any; $10 handling fee)

The 41st Annual Convention will feature approximately 350 sessions, as well as dynamic speakers and cultural events. Details and the complete Call for Papers for the 2010 Convention will be posted in June: www.nemla.org.

Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA session; however panelists can only present one paper (panel or seminar). Convention participants may present a paper at a panel and also present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable.

Travel to Canada now requires a passport for U.S. citizens. Please get your passport application in early.