[Discussion] CFP: Figures of Convulsion (grad) (9/1/05; 11/18/05-11/19/05)

[Sule Tarakcioglu]

From: Kathryn McEwen <kmcewen@Princeton.EDU>

The graduate students of the Department of German at Princeton University
announce a graduate conference to be held November 18-19, 2005. We invite
abstracts from graduate students in German studies and other disciplines 
in the
humanities and social sciences:

Figures of Convulsion

Literature, philosophy, visual art, music and film often figure 
discontinuity
and interruption as moments of convulsion. Originally a medical term, 
convulsion
has come to refer to both bodily and psychic phenomena--for instance, 
spasms,
shivers, laughter, contractions, hysteria, paroxysm, orgasm and 
epilepsy. These
conditions raise the question of what constitutes a convulsion. Is 
paroxysmal
activity necessarily irregular, unpredictable, and discontinuous? To what
extent is it involuntary? Must it always be pathological, or can it manifest
itself as benign or even therapeutic?

We are interested not only in how the figure of convulsion represents the
intersection of certain bodily and psychic activities, but also in how this
trope gains currency in a variety of discourses. The vocabulary and 
imagery of
convulsion is used to describe certain political and social experiences, 
such as
agitation, unrest, excitement or revolution, as well as violent geological
disturbances (earthquakes or volcanic eruptions). Further, convulsion is 
often
also a means of representation, for example, unstable images produced by 
certain
photographic and filmic practices, as well as explosive sounds that 
destabilize
the relation of signal, noise and silence.

We are seeking papers that examine interruptions of any kind that result 
in a
transformation or radical shift, whether as formal quality or thematic 
element.

Please send a 50-word summary and a 500-word abstract to
kgellen@princeton.edu, kmcewen@princeton.edu, and
mmcampbe@princeton.edu by September 1, 2005.


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