Please consider submitting an abstract for the following panel at the 2022 Northeast Modern Language Association Conference to be held from March 10-13, 2022, in Baltimore, MD. Abstracts are accepted from June 15 to September 30, 2021.

Submit abstracts at the NeMLA portal: https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/login

Mental Health In the Media: Representations in Fiction

“Everybody has problems. Some people just hide their crap better than others.” – Ned Vizzini, It’s Kind of a Funny Story

For years, mental health has pervaded the world of fiction, longer than we’ve even been aware of. Working off this year’s conference theme of “Care,” this session aims to talk about the way that mental health has often been discussed in fiction and what it shows us about the global understanding, or lack thereof, of mental health / illness. Especially moving forward from a boom in the mental health industry from the COVID-19 pandemic, highlighting the need for greater access to counseling and therapy, this session poses the question: How have we, as a general human society, represented mental health struggles through fiction, and how is this changing? Acceptable forms of media include, but aren’t limited to, literature, television, movies, and theatrical works. Please submit a 250-300 word abstract of your proposal.