2023 Conference

“Anger”

2023 Meeting of the Society for Comparative Literature and the Arts

October 5-7, 2023

Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District (Hotel)

Philadelphia, PA

Keynote Speaker: Robert J. C. Young

For the 2023 meeting of the Society for Comparative Literature and the Arts, we welcome contributions that examine the notion of anger in comparative studies and literary theory. What does anger signify today? Whose anger matters? Why are some bodies allowed to be angry—their anger is deemed appropriate, justified, and even dignified—while others, often racialized bodies, are constantly condemned for being so? What is the future of anger? Has it been freed from a politics of respectability? Is anger irremediably tied to a rhetoric of victimhood and/or identity politics? Under what circumstances can it be deployed for a universal politics? With an eye for its many permutations, the conference will consider anger’s reinvigorated existence and persistence in the contemporary world. Topics of interest could include:

Anger and racism

Anger and the philosophical tradition

Anger and its relation to hate/resentment

Bad affects

White anger

Queer anger

The politics of respectability

The rhetoric of blame

Audre Lorde and the politics of rage

The feminist killjoy

The Right to Anger

Anger’s negativity

Anti-colonial anger

Liberalism and anger-management

Anger and the death drive

Anger and gendered and/or sexualized bodies

Abstract deadline: July 15th, 2023

Email: sclafall2023@gmail.com

Panel and paper proposals related to the conference theme are especially encouraged, but all topics are welcome. Please submit panel proposals (500 words) and individual abstracts (250 words) by July 15th, 2023. Please include in the body of the email your name, academic affiliation, status (faculty, grad student, etc.), and mailing address. For panel proposals, include the names, addresses, and affiliations for all participants.