CFP: C19 Mourning in America (9/15; NEMLA, 4/7-4/8)

From: Dana Luciano (dluciano@echonyc.com)
Date: Wed Aug 18 1999 - 16:24:55 EDT


CALL FOR PAPERS

Mourning in America:
Loss in Nineteenth-Century American Literature

NEMLA (Northeast Modern Language Association)
Buffalo, NY April 7-8, 1999

This panel will consider the ways that loss was figured in
nineteenth-century American literature and culture. I am most interested
in papers that examine the ways that mourning gave form to public culture
in nineteenth century America. How did literary mourning work to
construct a sense of national belonging? How were specific forms of
mourning employed to create and/or consolidate particular forms of
identity, especially racial identity? And finally, how did melancholia
(blocked or unrepresentable mourning) structure American public culture in
the nineteenth century?

Some topics that papers might explore:

"Vanishing Americans"
The function of martyrs in abolitionist or Progressive narratives
Maternal loss in sentimental culture
Civil War stories
Race as the scene of loss

Papers may focus on canonical or non-canonical literature; readings of
nonliterary representations of death or mourning are also invited.
Theoretical approaches welcome. Please send 1-2 page abstracts to:

Dana Luciano
Department of English, Box 47a
College of the Holy Cross
Worcester, MA 01610

or email dluciano@echonyc.com

Submissions are due September 15, 1999. If accepted, you must be a member
of NEMLA by November 1, 1999 in order to participate in the panel. To
join NEMLA, visit the NEMLA website at http://www.anna-maria.edu/nemla.

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