The Paradox of Emotion in Modern Poetry (MLA 2024)

deadline for submissions: 
March 20, 2023
full name / name of organization: 
Ariana Lyriotakis / Trinity College Dublin
contact email: 

How does modern poetry enact a paradox of emotion? This MLA 2024 special session invites proposals exploring ambivalence, co-existence or contradiction of emotive states in modern/late modern/postmodern poetics. Broader interpretations of the theme are certainly welcome. Topics may include, but are not limited to:

  • Joy/Sorrow
  • Emotional valences
  • Mood
  • Somatic/Carnal
  • Intimacy
  • Hope/Loss
  • Pride/Shame
  • Emotion/Logic
  • Trauma
  • Embodied knowledge
  • Perception
  • Temporality
  • Phenomenology of emotions

Kindly submit your abstract (250-350 words) as well as a short bio by Monday, March 20th to:

Ariana Lyriotakis, Trinity College Dublin | lyriotaa@tcd.ie

Please reach out with any further questions or clarifications that might be needed. The presidential theme for MLA 2024 (Philadelphia, PA) is Celebration: Joy and Sorrow. https://www.mla.org/Convention/MLA-2024/Presidential-Theme-for-the-2024-...