DEADLINE EXTENSION: The new deadline for abstract submission is June 15, 2022. 

International Modernism and Postmodernism Studies Conference 2022

(Online)

October 18-19, 2022

Department of English Language and Literature, Osmaniye Korkut Ata University

&

Modernism and Postmodernism Studies Network

Call for Papers

Modernism, which showed its effect in architecture, fine arts, philosophy, literature, politics, society and the individual with the rapidly increasing 19th-century industrialization, capitalism, scientific developments, technological advances and the First World War, promised humanity innovative, libertarian and democratic ways of life and expression by moving away from the order, traditions, principles, thought and value systems of the century in which it emerged. Modernism argued that the truth can be reached with rationality and science, and that the human is a consistent, conscious and holistic individual who seeks the absolute truth. However, with the commodification brought about by modernism, humans began to see nature and the nonhuman as a means of reaching the absolute truth and providing capital, misused it as they wished to fulfil their endless desires and positioned themselves separately from animals, plants and elements in nature. While the concepts of reality, human, identity/self/subject and nature continued to be discussed within the framework of modernism, postmodernism, which is the continuation of modernism according to some thinkers, or which is after and against modernism according to other thinkers, emerged with the Second World War. Whether it is the continuation of or against modernism, postmodernism problematized the modernist perspective by deconstructing what modernism brought. Reality has been replaced by fiction, and the absolute realistic individual who thinks she/he exists has been replaced by the fragmented self with an inconsistent, variable, opposite and complex identity that questions her/his existence. The human subject, who questioned her/his existence and her/his fragmented self in postmodernism, realized that nature cannot be a tool for human desires, that her/his fragmented self must be reintegrated with nature, that nature is not only a passive living space, and that all living beings in nature are also active subjects and started to reposition herself/himself in and with nature.

While the debates about modernism and postmodernism still continue today, humanity has met a new concept in the 21st century: Metaverse. Meaning “beyond universe” or “transcending universe”, metaverse refers to the reconstruction of humanity’s own world with virtual reality and augmented reality in a real-time three-dimensional virtual world. The term first appeared in the American writer Neal Stephenson’s novel Snow Crash (1992). For some, metaverse is a reflection of real life to virtual life, it strengthens communication among people without borders, it enables the human body consisting of flesh, bones and spirit to exist in an endless virtual world with the advanced holograms called ‘avatars’, and it offers a digital second life. For others, it is an exploitation of a new capital system, it helps people escape their real-life problems, it eliminates relationships between individuals in real life, and it causes humans to be alienated from their real bodies with their avatars, from their self, their own kind and the nonhuman.

So, can the discussions about reality, humanity, self, identity, position of humans in nature and their attitudes towards the elements in nature, which started with modernism and intensified with postmodernism in the real world, end in metaverse with our avatars? Can metaverse, which offers a digital second life, provide solutions to global problems such as food crisis, climate crisis, environmental crisis, refugee problem etc. in its endless and unlimited world with holograms?

“International Modernism and Postmodernism Studies Conference 2022”, which will be organized jointly by the Department of English Language and Literature, Osmaniye Korkut Ata University, and Modernism and Postmodernism Studies Network, is the third conference of the Network. Subjects related to the concepts of modern, modernity, modernization, modernism, modernist, postmodern, postmodernity, postmodernization, postmodernism, postmodernist, metamodernism, digital modernism, and post-postmodernism are within the scope of our conference. The conference welcomes studies from all disciplines, including literature, philosophy, sociology and fine arts in particular. It is also among our goals to include studies on the projections, new conceptualizations and global agenda regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and 21st century problems.

Although the official languages of the conference are English and Turkish, other world languages will also be welcomed.

Our conference will be held online as the current situation of the COVID-19 outbreak does not allow to make travel plans and our priority is public health.

In order to present your paper at the conference, please send your abstract (200-300 words) that focuses on various concepts and ideas associated with modernism and postmodernism, including keywords and a short bio (50-100 words), to moposconference2022@gmail.com by June 01, 2022 in a single Microsoft Word document. Each presentation will be 15-minute long, followed by a 5-minute Q&A. The conference is open to panel suggestions.

Abstracts will go through the double-blind peer-review process by the conference Scientific Committee. Notifications will be announced on the specified date. Abstracts accepted for presentation will be published electronically in the conference abstract book. In addition, at the end of the conference, the full-text papers will be published in the conference proceedings book after the double-blind peer-review process.

For the authors who will present papers at the conference, there is a registration fee. For more detailed information about the conference, please visit http://konferans.modernizm.org/ or send an e-mail to moposconference2022@gmail.com for your questions.