Since the 16th century, communities in Spain and Latin America have been persecuted for their religious and political beliefs, from the moriscos in Spain and indigenous groups in Latin America to the opponents of the Spanish and Latin American dictatorships. This panel will explore the way in which marginalized groups re-determine their identity in societies undergoing major political and social changes. Please submit 300-500 word abstracts in English or Spanish to Jill González and Safiya Maouelainin at jmb06@bu.edu.

This panel will examine eighteenth-century British fiction and the relationship between violence, obscenity and humor. Novelists' use of the obscene joke is a tempered way to suppress the blurring lines of distinction between classes and to maintain hierarchy, a direct response to the changes in society and to the increasing sensitivity to vulgar subjects in polite society. This panel is interested in discovering how authors mobilize social anxiety through violence, obscenity and humor.

While the Abbey Theatre is perhaps the most familiar public context through which the nationalistic and aesthetic struggle to shape an identity for a (post)colonial Ireland was formed, expatriate Irish used the bourgeoning film industry to represent Ireland from an international perspective. Recent commercial successes have ranged from the international co-production of The Wind That Shakes the Barley, winning British director Ken Loach a Palme d'Or, to the Dublin grassroots construction of John Carney's Oscar-winning Once, but awards aside, a tension still exists between the Ireland of filming destination and the Ireland of film origination.

For years, scholars have demonstrated the debt that Kyd, Marlowe, Shakespeare, and other playwrights owe to Seneca's work. Such foundational criticism has often pointed to Seneca's plot devices, characterization, language, and form that inspired later Renaissance dramatists. However, recent scholarship demonstrates Seneca's effect on early modern subject construction and performance conditions. This panel aims to continue and extend current reconsiderations of Seneca's influence on early modern drama by gathering papers that "rethink" Seneca's works and influence in light of feminist, queer, post-colonial, and materialist theoretical perspectives.

Journal of Literature and Trauma Studies
www.jlts.stir.ac.uk

'Horror is beyond the reach of psychology' Adorno, Minima Moralia, p. 164