This session will examine the representations of
history in works of literature and film by and
about women. With the emergence of women’s
history as a field of study, it has become
possible to see how the past has been constructed,
distorted, or commodified in various forms of
presentation of women’s experience. Georg Lukacs
argued that historical fiction was written
primarily as commentary on the present, not the
past. This panel is designed to consider how the
stories of the past serve to speak to present-day
gender realities. Key questions include: What
assumptions underlie depictions of women’s lives
in the past? What ideological and social purposes
for the present are accomplished through
re-presentations of history? What theories of
history (progess, decline, great woman,
materialist, victimization) implicitly or
explicitly shape the narratives? The texts to be
considered could include historical novels and/or
the films made from them (e.g., Toni Morrison’s
_Beloved_), “period” films made from novels by
women (e.g., films based on Jane Austen’s novels),
novels or films from any era in which the past
plays a significant role in shaping women’s
experience (e.g., Julie Dash’s _Daughters of the
Dust_ or Maxine Hong Kingston’s novels). By
encouraging cross-cultural and -generational
presentations, this panel can offer some insight
into the ways women’s history and by extension
their present reality are being understood within
contemporary culture. Proposals of no more than
200 words should be postmarked no later than 15
September and sent to Keith Byerman, Department of
English, Indiana State University, Terre Haute, IN
47809, or by e-mail (as message, not attachment)
to K-Byerman@indstate.edu. Participants must be
members of NEMLA.
===============================================
From the Literary Calls for Papers Mailing List
CFP@english.upenn.edu
Full Information at
http://www.english.upenn.edu/CFP/
or write Erika Lin: elin@english.upenn.edu
===============================================
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue Jul 11 2000 - 16:22:32 EDT