Marxism and Cartography- DEADLINE EXTENDED
CFP: The 25th Annual University of Florida Critical Theory Reading Group/MRG Conference
“Marxism and Cartography”
The Critical Theory Reading Group/MRG, University of Florida
March 23-26, Gainesville, FL
Keynotes: Regina Martin (Denison University), Jason Read (University of Southern Maine), and Robert Tally (Texas State University)
Fredric Jameson’s important essay “Cognitive Mapping” argues that we need to understand our relationship to capitalism’s spatial developments in order to build a Marxist utopian future, and literary experiments with cognitive mapping should serve, as he claims in Postmodernism, to “enable a situational representation on the part of the individual subject to that vaster and properly unrepresentable totality which is the ensemble of society’s structures as a whole” (51). Similarly, Alberto Toscano and Jeff Kinkle argue in Cartographies of the Absolute that contemporary capitalism manifests itself in the form of reconfigurations of space that reproduce social disparities. Additionally, they claim that what is at stake here is “the figurability or representability of our present and its shaping effect on political action,” thus considering the mapping of capitalism to be “a precondition for identifying any ‘levers’, nerve-centres or weak links in the political anatomy of contemporary domination” (8). Given capitalism’s totalizing forces and neoliberalism’s globalized reach, capitalism has now entirely pervaded our understanding of space and geography. In this contemporary moment, signifying capitalism’s third stage, such representational issues have resulted in a larger obsession (or fetishization) or maps and the subject of cartography.
This conference will examine the intersection of global capitalism and spatiality, and our goal will be to re-assess our own cartographical approaches to literary and cultural representations of global capitalism. It is necessary to reframe our understanding of capitalism’s relationship to space and cartography in order to combat capitalism’s ever-evolving global development. One of our main concerns is constructing a spatially-oriented study of literature and culture, but we invite scholars of all disciplines to propose conference talks that will help us explore the subject of cartography both as a means for representing our current real-world conditions and as a means for discovering alternative possibilities with an eye toward political futurity.
Considering these topics and issues, some questions we are interested in exploring include: How have artistic representations served as a means for better understanding the complex dynamics/relationships which contribute to our understanding of capitalism (or as a means for revealing these relationships which are otherwise invisible/unperceived in our day-to-day lives)? How do specific literary representations serve to “map out” complex structures which constitute our reality in the era of late capitalism, and how can we utilize these narrative depictions as a means for gaining a deeper understanding of capitalism’s third stage, or as a means for creating opportunities for social/political change in the real world? What does the future hold for interdependent global economies? How are minorities disadvantaged by spaces of capitalism? How do virtual spaces of labor (working online, working via Zoom, etc.) differ from older forms of labor? How has the Covid-19 pandemic changed our relationship to space? How does capitalism create spaces that widen income gaps between different classes? How does capitalism control and exploit natural resources? How has the onslaught of climate change rendered our own planet increasingly uninhabitable? Can Marxism potentially heal the metabolic rift?
Some potential paper topics may include:
- Marxism and Spatial Development
- Marxism and Cognitive Mapping
- Marxism and Urbanization
- Marxism and International Relations
- Marxism and Environmentalism/the Anthropocene
- Marxism and Globalization
- Marxism and Networks/Systems
- Marxism and Postcolonial Studies
- Marxism and Indigenous Studies
- Marxism and Geocriticism (or Geopolitics)
- Marxism and Figuration
- Marxism and Socio-Economic Relations in the 21st Century
- Marxism and Utopian Spaces/Possibilities
- Marxism and Metabolism (or Metabolic Rift)
The conference will feature keynote speeches from Regina Martin, Jason Read, and Robert Tally.
Note: This conference theme is a guideline for potential presenters rather than a limitation and we are open to other Marxism-specific topics.
Please submit an abstract of up to 250 words with 4-5 keywords for a 15-20 minute presentation, along with contact information and a brief author bio, to theufmrg@gmail.com by January 14. We will also consider panel proposals, but we do ask that panelists represent multiple institutions and provide a brief description and rationale along with the panelists’ abstracts. Please indicate any A/V requests. Also let us know if you have participated in past MRG conferences or if you are a UF-MRG alumnus. Authors of accepted presentations will be notified by January 21.
The conference will be held in-person at the University of Florida in Gainesville, FL on the weekend of March 23-26.
For questions concerning the conference, please contact us at theufmrg@gmail.com. For more information, visit https://ufmrg.wordpress.com.