Literature and Film of the Iraq Wars-- DATE EXTENDED TO 10/6

full name / name of organization: 
Northeast Modern Language Assocation
contact email: 

CFP: The Literature and Films of the War in Iraq
Northeast Modern Language Association
Hartford, CT March 17-20, 2016
Contact: Zivah Perel Katz (zkatz@qcc.cuny.edu)
Narrative representations of war have long been important culturally, having the power to help people feel and, one hopes, ultimately understand important personal and historical events. Susan Mackey-Kallis, a film studies scholar, observes that popular films, and I would add popular novels, help to "make sense retrospectively by storytelling in the present, drawing on events in the past," which then "shape[s] that past and make[s] it usable" (23). Literary and filmic representations of war are important tools in understanding and creating a social memory of it. These representations stand alongside historical documents, news reports, journalism, and non-fiction to create a full perspective of war and the experience of serving in it. Literature and film scholars have long worked to analyze narrative representations of war in order to more fully understand them individually and collectively. This roundtable session welcomes short papers that explore American literature and film that grapples with the Persian Gulf and Iraq Wars.
Please submit abstracts by October 6 via https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/cfp