This seminar invites proposals by scholars interested in contemporary literary works or film narratives including the emerging disciplines of Ecocriticism, Ecofiction, or Ecolit, which solicit “la terre,” its associations or byproducts as central and significant themes, to address or revisit matters of human existence, whether personal, regional, or of a global nature.

Although broad a subject matter, the goal of this seminar is to focus on the underpinnings of their growing popularity and what stands symbolically or metaphorically at the roots of a return to the ground, the soil, the earth, or the farmland. Beyond the mere nostalgia of a more quiet or simple life past or present, how does the treatment of “la terre” in such narratives engages the reader’s responsibility, or the concept of ownership of that land? What lays in what we call “our land” vs. “their” land, changing borders, changing landscapes, or issues of cultural identity? How do such terms connect to essential questions of an existential, political or environmental nature? How do these literary works affect our relation to the Other, including animals, their respective worlds, and the environment?

Deadline for submission is September 23, 2016: http://www.acla.org/seminars?combine=Mairesse&items_per_page=20