[Discussion] CFP: Myth and History in Contemporary Balkan Literatures (3/15/05; MLA '05)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

Call for Papers: Myth and History in Contemporary Balkan Literatures

Special Session
MLA Convention, December 27-30, 2005
Washington, DC

We are soliciting proposals for a special session at the MLA in
Washington D.C., on the topic of myth and history in contemporary Balkan
literatures, film, and theory.

 From Bram Stoker's Dracula, to the multitude of texts dealing with the
symbolism of the Balkan bridges, and Balkans as a bridge, the region has
been created as an archetypal locale in which myth and history seem to
be inextricably linked. In this session we would like to discuss the
ways in which contemporary Balkan texts use the mythical or traditional
body of knowledge to underline historical processes. Through literary
renditions and theoretical elaborations of myths created in the region,
as well as those created about the region, by literary texts, film
industry, and media, we will delve into the problematic of memory,
identity, ethnicity, gender, body, the gaze, totalitarianism, violence,
exile, to name but a few.

One-page proposals are invited for papers dealing with, but not limited
to, any aspects of the following:
- convergences and/or divergences between myth and history;
- myth as unofficial rewriting of history;
- cultural appropriation, use and reinvention of myths across
cultures;
- uncertainty of memory versus the verifiable 'truth' of the book;
- the concepts of 'belated modernity'/modernity and postmodernity in
relation to literary movements in the Balkans;
- the public and the private spheres;
- orality and textuality;
- the Balkan bridges and the Balkans as a bridge;
- poetry, fiction and Balkan landscape;
- locating the nation: East, West, North, South;
- poetry, fiction and architecture in the Balkans;
- resistance to myth and mythopoiisis (myth-making).

Please submit proposals by March 20 to:
Tatjana Aleksic, atatjana@rci.rutgers.edu
Marinos Pourgouris, marinos@rci.rutgers.edu
Rutgers University
Program in Comparative Literature
205 RAB
131 George Street
New Brunswick, NJ 08901

REMINDER: All participants must be members of the MLA by April 7.


 From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List