[Discussion] CFP: Modernism's Dictators (10/21/04-10/24/04)

[sule tarakcioglu]

CFP: Modernism=92s Dictators (4/2/04; MSA 10/21/04-10/24/04)

Modernist Studies Association 6th Annual Conference, 21-24 October 2004

Simon Fraser University and University of British Columbia (Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada)

This proposed panel will look at the modernist fascination with and=20
critique of totalitarian leadership and, more specifically, the person=20
of the dictator. In the spirit of the conference theme=97Other=20
Modernisms/Modernism=92s Others=97the panel examines how interest in figu=
res=20
such as Mussolini, Hitler, Franco, Petain, Mosley, Stalin and, later,=20
Mao, compelled modernists to cross the boundaries of national identity=20
in the search of national heroes.

Looking, for example, at Pound=92s Cantos and Jefferson and/or Mussolini,=
=20
Stein=92s support of Petain and Franco, Wyndham Lewis=92s Hitler and The=20
Hitler Cult, or Natalie Clifford Barney=92s admiration for Petain and=20
Mussolini, we see how the despotic other can come to represent a=20
cultural and political ideal.

How does literary modernism both admire and denigrate the totalitarian
figure, as in Virginia Woolf=92s ambivalently charged description of the
=93tightly cased,=94 uniformed body of the =93German and Italian F=FChrer=
 or=20
Duce . . . the Tyrant or Dictator=94 in Three Guineas? The search for=20
ideal political authority often leads to a turn toward the extremes of
authoritarianism, but how does this identification and idealization
complicate the seeker=92s national identity? How does the dictator=20
figure=97real or imagined-- allow for writers to perform or explore their=
=20
own authority?

In what ways do writers and artists negotiate their own national or=20
gendered identities vis-=E0-vis preoccupation with an idealized national=20
other? Although questions of dictatorship, identification, and national=20
identity are the focus, coverage may be broadly conceived in terms of=20
medium and genre. I encourage studies of these phenomena in Asian,=20
African, and Latin American modernisms as well.

Send queries, 200 word abstract, and brief c.v. (all preferably in the=20
body of the e-mail) to Annalisa Zox-Weaver at zoxweave@usc.edu by April=20
2, 2004. Deadline for submission of our proposal to the MSA is May 3, 200=
4.
Information about the conference is available at .

Annalisa Zox-Weaver
English Department
University of Southern California