Temporalities and Childhood

full name / name of organization: 
PAMLA 2015--Dr. Markus Bohlmann

"Temporalities and Childhood" is a panel at the upcoming PAMLA 2015 conference, November 6-8, 2015, in Portland, USA.

The conference theme is "time and literature," and the panel will explore the various temporalities at play within the binary realms of childhood and adulthood with the aim of rethinking the teleology of 'growing up' from a temporal perspective.

Western childhood is supposed to be a carefree time of enjoying life at its best. Yet this perspective has little to do with the lived experience of those cast to inhabit childhood. Its apparent timelessness rather stems from an adult nostalgia for a lost time that is to be regained through children. This panel explores various concepts of time ascribed to and policed within the binary 'time zones' of childhood and adulthood. What are their mechanisms? What are their promises? What are their pitfalls? How could the child-adult binary be re-conceived through a temporal lens? What alternatives to the linear teleology of 'growing up' are to be gained? What does story-telling offer to the child and the adult in terms of temporalities?

Interested panelists are to submit a 300 word abstract and a 100 word bio by April 10, 2015 to markus.bohlmann@senecacollege.ca.

Please include "PAMLA 2015" in the subject line.