Sapphic Echoes: Representations of Female Love and Desire in Literature and the Visual Arts

This session asks questions and invites responses that explore representations of female love and desire in literature and visual art. How have the complex poetics of female desire—the desire to have something, or escape something, or punish, or know—been represented over time? What strategies have been employed to subvert literary conventions defined predominantly by male perspectives on home, love, war, victory and loss? How have female characters navigated the interplay between things done (overtly) and thought (covertly) to reveal the inner web of desires, fears and conflicts that constitute a female poetics of love and longing? 

This session is part of NeMLA’s 57th Annual Convention, March 5-8, 2026, Pittsburgh, PA.

This session is remote, not in person. 

Please submit proposals to: https://cfplist.com/nemla/Home/CFP.

Please contact diana.shaffer@tx.rr.com if you have questions.