War, Disability, and Embodiment

NACBS 2017

November 3-5 2017

Denver, Colorado

“The poetry is in the pity,” as Wilfred Owen famously wrote of Great War poetry. Yet wars maim, transfigure, disembody, unhinge, dismember, and kill. A question for scholars, especially humanist ones, is how we are supposed to treat aesthetic representations of war when we seek to respect the humanity of the individual. This panel welcomes diverse perspectives on the British Empire as seen through the lenses of its wars upon the body. Papers discussing the effects of individual disabilities inflicted by war, such as shell shock in the Great War, and of the embodiment of war within the individual, such as the “ideal” British soldier, are as equally welcome as discussions of the effects of British polices upon the colonial and postcolonial body. In addition to these concerns, this panel welcomes papers inquiring into the following questions:

-       How might the field of disability studies help us better understand the British individual during and after wartime?

-       How might we use visual rhetoric to read the image of the body during or after war?

-       How can the field of cultural memory be applied to the embodiment of the British subject and war?

-       How might conceptions of (dis)ability and embodiment have been remediated through images or literature?

-       In what ways did the medical establishment play a role within conceptions of (dis)ability, manhood, womanhood, and personhood?

Papers from all historical periods are encouraged.

Please send abstracts of 300 words to Madden Swan at madden.swan@gmail.com along with a short bio and A/V requirements by February 24, 2017. Presenterswill be notified whether or not their abstracts have been accepted by March 3, 2017. Additional information about the conference can be obtained at http://www.nacbs.org or by contacting me directly.