Call for Proposals
CALL
FOR PROPOSALS
ESCAPE:
Restraint, Liberty and Literature
The Fifth Annual University of Ottawa English Graduate Conference
June 12th-13th, 2010
"Man's
most valuable faculty is his imagination. Human life seems so little designed
for happiness that we need the help of a few creations, a few images,
a lucky choice of memories to muster some sparse pleasure on this earth
and struggle against the pain of all our destinies - not by philosophical
force, but by the more efficient force of distraction."
- Germaine Necker de Staël
Works of fiction, whether popular or "literary," have often been described as informing - and being informed by - a spirit of escapism. Readers may take up a text seeking to be edified, but they may also hope for the "distraction" described above by Madame de Staël. Is this a necessary feature of fiction? Or is it rather a feature of the reader's approach to fiction? How does it apply to works of non-fiction? To drama? To poetry? Can theories of escape and escapism be applied to non-literary fields? What alternatives to escape are there?
We seek papers addressing these and other questions, and we welcome submissions from students in all disciplines. Possible topics include, but are not limited to:
- Escape
- Hiding
- Pursuit
- Divine intervention
- Happiness
- "The one that got away"
- Travel
- Safety
- Out and coming out
- Rescue
- Danger
- "esc"
- Transcendence
- Exploration
- Evasion
- Romance
- Survival and revival
- Fantasy
- Liberation
- Zombies
While Escape is a graduate-oriented conference, the organizers would like to put together an undergraduate panel. If you know a promising undergraduate who might be interested in such an opportunity, please pass this along.
Proposals for 20-minute presentations should be no more than 300 words in length and must be submitted, along with a brief (100-word) biographical sketch, to uottawa.conference@gmail.com no later than April 1st, 2010.
Previous CFP (2009)
Exhumations and the Revisiting of the Past
Fourth Annual
University of Ottawa English Department Graduate Conference
June 12th - 13th, 2009
What's dead
does not always stay buried, and what's buried is not
always dead. To exhume is to bring forth from the earth—to dredge
up,
to revivify, to resurrect. Issues of life and death abound, but is the
binary secure? Are there subterranean survivals? Can the dead walk the
earth? And what of the inanimate—can ruins be refurbished? Can
artifacts find new use? Can undercurrents become overtones? Can the
past be reconstructed as the present and telescoped into the future?
We seek papers answering these and other questions and welcome
submissions from students in all disciplines. Topics to address
include, but are not limited to:
- Exhumation
- Ancestors
- Religion
- Archaeology
- Paleontology
- Resurrection
- Tradition
- Regaining Memory
- Ossification
- Revivification
- Old Traditions in New Media
- The Subterranean
- Zombies and the Undead
- The Chthonic
- Secret Histories
- Reconstruction of the Past
- Fictionalization of the Past
- The Artifact
- Ruins
- Catacombs
- Paleoconservatism
- Historiographic Metafiction
SPECIAL NOTES
While Exhumations
is a graduate-oriented conference, the organizing
committee would like to put together an undergraduate panel. If you
know a promising undergraduate who might be interested in such an
opportunity, please pass this along.
Because
Exhumations is an interdisciplinary conference, we gladly
welcome submissions from students in any field.
Proposals
for 20-minute presentations in English or French should be
no more than 300 words in length and must be submitted, along with a
brief (100 word) biography, to uottawa.conference@gmail.com no later
than March 22nd, 2009.
Previous CFP (2007)
Conference
2007, "'Art made tongue-tied by Authority': Expression, Suppression,
and Censorship," was held
on September 21-22, 2007.
According to playwright Eugene O'Neill, "Censorship of anything, at any time, in any place, on whatever pretence, has always been and always will be the last resort of the boob and the bigot." Censorship continues to be a major impediment to freedom of speech in literature, music, and visual and other arts. Indeed, for every act of artistic expression there seems to be an opposing act of artistic suppression.
Why have artistic works been censored throughout history, and why, in countries that pride themselves on freedom of speech like Canada and the U.S., do they continue to be? Have the reasons for censoring texts changed over history, or do they remain essentially the same? Who exactly are the "boob[s] and bigot[s]" that censor texts? Are there instances where O'Neill's characterization of the censor is too narrow-minded or even inappropriate? Are there cases where censorship is appropriate or justifiable? Can suppression act as an influence for creative expression or re-presentation?
The Third Annual University of Ottawa English Graduate Conference invites graduate student papers that deal with the censorship of texts (books, films, music, visual arts, advertisements, etc.) in "any time, in any place, [and] on whatever pretence."
Possible
topics for consideration include
(but are certainly not limited to):
- Individual
authors/artists who have been censored
- Censored/Banned/Burned
Texts
- Taboo
subjects/words
- Mechanisms
of censorship (i.e. how it is implemented and enforced, and how these have changed
over time)
- Censorship
in the cause of political correctness
- The
teaching of controversial literature and banned books
- The
censoring of children's literature (high school libraries, etc.)
- Censorship
of/and History (ie. Holocaust denial, history textbooks, war letters)
- Anti-censorship
campaigns (ie. Canada's "Freedom to Read" Week)
- Censorship
and Technology (internet, television, computer games, etc.)
- Censorship
of the body
- The
recovery of repressed or suppressed texts (religious texts, Aboriginal writing,
etc.)
- Censorship
and minority groups
- Journalistic
censorship (Pamphlet wars, media control and ownership, etc.)
- Self-Censorship
- "bleeping"
in music and television
- Censorship
after 9/11 (journalism, film, etc.)
- Positive aspects of censorship (i.e., J.M. Coetzee: "there may even be
- cases where external censorship challenges the writer in interesting ways or spurs creativity.")
Submission
Guidelines
Please email a 250 to 300 word abstract and a short biographical
statement to uottawa.conference@gmail.com by June 1, 2007. Papers should be 15-20
minutes in length. Please specify if you require any A/V equipment.