CALL FOR PAPERS – MLA 2025 – New Orleans 

The International Vladimir Nabokov Society seeks paper proposals for presentations on the following themes for the Modern Language Association’s Annual Convention (January 9-12, 2025, New Orleans, LA):  

Nabokov, Blackness, and Whiteness 

Vladimir Nabokov is not generally thought of as an author whose writings engaged matters of racial identity, politics, or social justice; however, his works do contain, with some regularity, references to race-related issues, as well as recurring patterns and images of black and white: chessboard figures, Harlequin designs, character names, and more. The IVNS invites innovative papers on blackness and whiteness in Nabokov’s works, understood broadly in any number of separate or overlapping contexts: race, ethnicity, and/or identity matters in (or related to) Nabokov (including, potentially, civil rights issues; perspectives from BLM; influence from or on Black authors; reading race, racism, and/or anti-racism in Nabokov; etc.); white and black as themes/designs/motifs/colors in his works (chess themes; characters such as Dr. Blanche Schwarzmann, Ivor Black, or others combining Black and White; etc.). Please send 250-word abstracts by 3/15/2024 to Christopher Link (linkc@newpaltz.edu) and Marie Bouchet (marie.bouchet@univ-tlse2.fr). 

Submission Deadline: 

Friday, 15 March 2024 

Nabokov and Musicality 

Despite Nabokov’s remarkable claim that music, for him, was “an arbitrary succession of more or less irritating sounds” (Speak, Memory Ch. 2, §1), his works contain undeniable musicality as well as plenty of allusions to music (real-world or invented) playing throughout the worlds of his fictions. The IVNS invites papers on music or musicality, broadly conceived, in (or involving) Nabokov's works (e.g., lyricism in Nabokov's language; popular music of the 1940s and ‘50s and/or Bizet's Carmen in Lolita; Shade on jazz and "music in supermarkets" in Pale Fire; the failed musical stage adaptation Lolita, My Love; other music inspired by Nabokov’s writings; etc.). Please send 250-word abstracts by 3/15/2024 to Marie Bouchet (marie.bouchet@univ-tlse2.fr) and Christopher Link (linkc@newpaltz.edu).  

Submission Deadline: 

Friday, 15 March 2024 

The official MLA CFP (limited to 35 words each) can be found at https://mla.confex.com/mla/2025/webprogrampreliminary/Session18871.html.