[Discussion] CFP: Intimacy and Exteriority (11/30/05; ACLA, 3/23/06-3/26/06)

[gpultar@cstgroup.org]

From: Sean Gurd <sgurd@alcor.concordia.ca>

Intimacy and Exteriority

ACLA Annual Conference Seminar, Princeton University, March 23-26, 2006

Mon semblable, mon frère

Deadline for proposal submissions: Nov. 30, 2005

>From Petrarch, who wrote familiar letters to his classical models, to Derrida,
who could elide the boundary between his own voice and the voices of his texts
to powerful effect, a disarming sense of intimacy between reader and text has
been a consistent aspect of humanistic practise. Yet beside the extraordinary
proximity achieved in humanistic reading there always seems to open a great
distance, as though we are never so far away from our texts as when we are
closest to them. In Humanism and Democratic Criticism Edward Said referred to
this twinning of intimacy with exteriority under the headings of receptivity and
resistance, but analogous formulations can be found in ethnography, ethics,
political theory, and fiction.

We wish to explore how the simultaneity of intimacy and exteriority has been
articulated in different times, places, and discursive modes. Readings,
comparative or otherwise, of literary, theoretical, philosophical, or critical
works are welcomed, as are broader original formulations on the theme. Papers
that can enact the theme at the same time as they discuss it are especially
welcome. Topics and authors might include the philosophy of friendship,
Derrida/Nancy on touch, figurations of intimacy in fiction and poetry, the
possession of language, intimacies in religious experience; but this is not, of
course, an exclusive list.

Papers will be presented as a seminar at the annual conference of the American
Comparative Literature Association; proposals for this seminar, including title
and a 250-word abstract, should be submitted at the ACLA's conference web site
(http://webscript.princeton.edu/~acla06/site/index.php), selecting "Intimacy and
Exteriority" as the desired panel.

For more information, contact sgurd@alcor.concordia.ca

--
Sean Alexander Gurd
Assistant Professor, Ancient Greek Studies
Department of Classics, Modern Languages and Linguistics
Concordia University
1455 de Maisonneuve West
Room H-663
Montreal, QC H3G 1M8
CANADA
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(514) 848 2424 x5473
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sgurd@alcor.concordia.ca



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