4th Literature and Cultural Studies Conference

03-05 May 2023

Ege University, Izmir, Turkey

As a peninsula, Anatolia is surrounded by seas that lend their names to the regions they border: from the Black Sea to the Marmara, from the Aegean to the Mediterranean. These fluid boundaries create ever-changing and ever-shifting spaces where the relationship of land and sea is intertwined. Water and land are culturally interwoven where each affects the other in shaping culture in and around itself. These entangled elements allow for various perspectives and analyses of nautical narratives whether they are about being near, in, under, or on the sea. From this cartographic perspective then, the proposed conference theme is open to all forms of human and nonhuman entanglements with vast bodies of water where we may discuss, debate, and explore the potentials of nautical narratives.

Such narratives we encounter not only in myths and legends (such as the great deluge, flood myths) but also in literature (i.e. “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner,” Moby Dick, Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea), film and television (i.e.  The Abyss, Jaws, Finding Nemo, Moana, SpongeBob SquarePants), and other media and mediums. In this vein, we welcome analyses of cultural texts, including, but not limited to, fictional and nonfictional literature, film, television, theater/performance, and material and visual cultures.

Paper proposals may be about, but not confined to the following themes:

• seas in myth, legend and folklore
• sea voyages as symbolic
• ships, shipwrecks, castaways, sunken treasures
• haunted seas, ghost ships/sailors
• naval warfare and piracy
• imperial expansion, postcolonialism, globalisation
• the sea and travel, exploration, trade, transportation, migration, diaspora
• islands, archipelagos
• storms, maelstroms, stillness, calmness
• oceans of the mind, archetypal/psychological seas
• sea monsters, monstrous seas
• the sea as mystery, as liminal space
• the sea as (an)other world
• coastal and ocean travel
• explorations of depths, narratives that take place under the sea 

We invite proposals of 250 words for talks of up to 20 minutes in length, which should be emailed along with a short bio (around 100 words) to egeadikam@gmail.com. Please include the phrase “2023 Paper Submission” in your subject line. Panel proposals for 60 minutes are also welcome. If you wish to submit a panel proposal, please include the line “2023 Panel Submission” in the subject line, and make sure you include the panel title/s and biographies of all your speakers in your abstract.

Abstracts are welcome in English, German, and Turkish!

The deadline for submissions is 30 January 2023 and notification of acceptance or rejection will be emailed by 27 February 2023.

Co-organised by: ADİKAM (European Languages and Cultures Research & Application Centre), the Departments of English Language and Literature, American Culture and Literature, German Language and Literature, and the Department of Translation and Interpreting of Ege University.