This session examines the relationship between religion and American literature. It welcomes papers that explore the intersectionality between religion, politics, and literature.  How can literary texts help us understand the discourses of the religious right or the left and their search for community?  How does faith contribute both to harmful or positive visions of community?  What can literature teach us about the type of faith that will allow us to create and embrace “the beloved community” introduced by Josiah Royce, and later highlighted by Martin Luther King, Jr.? Proposals that engage with the conference theme of "Geographies of the Fantastic and the Quotidian” are of particular interest. 

Though many Confessional poets lived and/or ended their lives tragically, their writing often speaks of resilience, survival, and their struggles to overcome depression. For such poets as John Berryman, Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath, Anne Sexton, and W.D. Snodgrass, writing can be seen as, in the quote in the title from Sexton, a form of personal salvation. This panel aims to examine how Confessional work demonstrates resilience in the face of the poets' own personal struggles, including such personal traumas as mental health, failing marriages and relationships, and the difficulties some faced as women writers. Papers on any of the listed writers or others who may be broadly construed as Confessional will be considered.

TITLE: TEACHING WITH SOCIAL MEDIA AND TECHNOLOGY: GLOBAL DOSSIERS

CALL FOR PAPERS