This proposed panel will explore the theory and practice of life-writing in modernism, particularly the ways in which the self is represented as "networked": the subject as social being in relation to others. Papers examining all genres of life-writing are welcome, especially those informed by conceptualizations of connection, networks, systems, relations, webs and their concomitant epistemologies. 500-word abstracts and CVs by March 30 to Janine Utell (jmutell_at_widener_dot_edu).

Papers will consider complexities raised by the construction of intimacy in life narratives (auto/biography/memoir). Perspective, epistemology, performance, genre, boundaries: how do we construct life stories for each other, for outsiders?

500-word abstracts and CVs via email by March 2, 2010.

In keeping with the 2010 SAMLA convention theme, the "Interplay between Image and Text," the MELUS panel seeks papers examining how images and/or the relationship between images and literary texts can inform, circumscribe, or perform identity within the context of multi-ethnic literature of the United States. Projects may consider images as constructed within narrative or place images and literary texts independent of one another in conversation. Please send 250 word abstracts and contact information to Lucy Littler at llittler@fsu.edu by April 15th, 2010. Panelists will be notified via email by May 1st, 2010.