Abstraction 2014

Once again, it’s February, which means it’s time to start work on our MLA abstracts. The next MLA – also known as the biggest conference in Modern Languages — will be held in Chicago, January 9-12, 2014. The deadline for submitting calls for papers is February 21, so I’ll try to keep this list updated as more CFPs to trickle in.

You can browse the full list of CFPs to see if anything makes a good fit for your work (you need to be a current member of the MLA to access the list). But for those of you who are as lazy as I am (or have let your memberships lapse), the specifically Romantic CFPs are below. Note that most deadlines fall in mid-March. Happy abstracting!

“Affect in Literature”
Special Session
What can we say about affect in literature? 250-word abstracts plus vitae by 10 March 2013; Yubraj Aryal (yaryal@purdue.edu). 250-word abstracts plus vitae by 10 March 2013; Yubraj Aryal (philitsociety@gmail.com).

“Affect Theory or Affect Studies?”
Special Session
What would shifting to a “studies” model of affects, rather than focusing on affect “theory,” mean for contemporary understandings of affect and emotion? 250-word abstracts plus vitae by 15 March 2013; Octavio Gonzalez (octaviorgonzalez@gmail.com).

“Deletion, Erasure, Cancellation”
Special Session
How might we theorize the aesthetics and poetics of practices such as deletion and erasure? All periods, genres, media welcome. Full CFP at paulbenzon.com/mla14cfp. Abstracts with short biographical statement by 1 March 2013; Paul Benzon (pbenzon@temple.edu).

“Forms of Freedom: Nineteenth-Century Poetry and Liberal Thought”
Special Session
This session will explore the ways that poetry responds to the rise of liberalism during the long nineteenth century. Abstracts of 250 words by 15 March 2013; Anna Barton (a.j.barton@sheffield.ac.uk).

“John Clare: The Voices of Nature”
Allied Organization: John Clare Society of North America
Papers addressing any aspect of Clare’s poetry and prose, especially regarding the intersection between nature and language. One page abstract by 15 March 2013; Samantha Celeste Harvey (samanthaharvey@boisestate.edu).

“Keats & Company”
Allied Organization: Keats-Shelley Association of America
Keats’s life and work in the context of Romantic sociability: friends, coteries, and collectors, then and now; conversation, correspondence, and print. 250 word abstract and brief bio by 15 March 2013; Sarah M. Zimmerman (zimmerman@fordham.edu).

“Milton’s Modernities”
Allied Organization: Milton Society of America
Papers addressing the poet’s seventeenth-century context or later influence. Full CFP at miltonsociety.org. Please send 500-word abstracts or eight-page paper by 15 March 2013; Ken Hiltner (hiltner@english.ucsb.edu) and Feisal Mohamed (fgm@illinois.edu).

“The Naked Eye: Visuality and Vulnerability”
Special Session
How does the visual/visible alongside, within, as text convey or resist vulnerability? Abstracts addressing any time period, genre, culture(s) welcome. 300-400-word abstract and 1 page CV by 8 March 2013; Allison Crawford (allison.crawford@utoronto.ca).

“National Epic”
Allied Organization: Goethe Society of North America
We seek papers that analyze the particular fascination of the German literary imagination with national epic in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. 300-word abstracts by 1 March 2013; Charlton Payne (charlton.payne@uni-erfurt.de).

“Nature”
Division: The English Romantic Period
of/ and/ or Romanticism: the un-green, post-green, ever-green; grafts, transplants, hybrids; histories, economies; scale, pace; local/ total/ micro; de-naturing, re-naturing; (without) life; the “all in all”/ “now no more.”. 300-word proposals by 11 March 2013; Miranda Jane Burgess (mirandab@mail.ubc.ca).

“Poverty and Naturalism”
Special Session
New perspectives (interpretive or theoretical) on naturalism as a genre that takes the poor and vulnerable as its preferred topic. Any literary tradition or period. 300-word abstracts by 8 March 2013; Eleni Eva Coundouriotis (eleni.coundouriotis@uconn.edu).

“Romantic Adaptation”
Allied Organization: Wordsworth-Coleridge Association
Essays should examine the purposes and techniques of textual adaptation in British Romantic literature, including translation, revision, retraction, bricolage, plagiarism, parody, forgery, hoax, lampoon, and caricature. Abstracts (250-300 words) by 15 March 2013; James C. McKusick (james.mckusick@umontana.edu).

“Romantic Partisanship”
Special Session
Aesthetics of taking sides in period that birthed radicalism, conservatism, liberalism; interplay of democracy and art: literary-ideological battles, affective excess, polemical genres, ad hominem attacks, straw (wo)men. 250-word abstract CV by 15 March 2013; Gerard Cohen-Vrignaud (gerard@utk.edu).

“The Romanticism of a Return to Communism”
Special Session
Is it possible to rethink Marx(ism) and Romanticism by considering recent, non-economist philosophies of communism, “being-in-common,” and the commons? Abstracts up to 250 words. by 15 March 2013; Lenora Hanson (lahanson3@gmail.com) and Karim Wissa (kwissa@gmail.com).

“The Sacrificial Dynamic in Goethe”
Allied Organization: Goethe Society of North America
Papers discussing the degree to which Goethe’s works reflect, and reflect on, sacrificial processes. Both fictional and non-fictional works may be considered. Abstracts by 1 March 2013; David Wellbery (wellbery@uchicago.edu).

“Sir Walter Scott and Music”
Allied Organization: Lyrica Society for Word-Music Relations
Celebrating the 200th anniversary of Waverley, we seek proposals on any of Scott’s works and music, including song settings, opera, musical theatre, etc. 250-350 word abstracts by 1 March 2013; Jeff Dailey (drjsdailey@aol.com).

“Size and Scale in Literature and Culture”
Special Session
Papers on bigness, smallness, proportion, the sublime, or other topics related to size and scale in literature and culture. Abstract (300 words) and 1-page CV by 15 March 2013; David Wittenberg (david-wittenberg@uiowa.edu).

“Time and the Sublime around 1800”
Special Session
Temporality and Romantic aesthetics circa 1780-1820. Seeking 5-10 minute talks (e.g. Lightning Shorts, PechaKucha). Detailed call on cfp.english.upenn.edu. Proposals describing content and format by 15 March 2013; Angela Vietto (arvietto@eiu.edu).

“Travel Literature and the Environment”
Discussion Group: Travel Literature
19th- to 21st-century travel literature and representations of the physical environment; the natural world; ecocritical approaches; and/or animal encounters. 250-500-word proposals by 5 March 2013; Jeanne Dubino (dubinoja@appstate.edu).

“Verbal and Visual Satire in the Nineteenth Century”
Special Session
Verbal and/or visual satire; relations to other forms; histories; British or comparative. 250-word abstracts by 1 March 2013; Frank A. Palmeri (fpalmeri@miami.edu).

“Wordsworth’s Excursion at 200”
Special Session
Keats called Wordsworth’s Excursion one of the “three things to rejoice at in this Age.” Papers should consider its legacy. Co-Sponsored by the Wordsworth-Coleridge Association. Abstracts (250 words) by 15 March 2013; Jacob Risinger (risinger@fas.harvard.edu).

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