The following call for papers is for an approved session at the
Northeastern Modern Language Association conference, to be held in
Hartford, CT on March 30-31, 2001. 1-2 page abstracts due Sept. 15,
2000.
Residues of War in America
This panel seeks to complicate the category of "war literature"
by considering texts that narrate, not the violence of war, but the
trauma of its aftermath. What traces does war experience leave, and how
do those traces become visible in post-war contexts? How do soldiers, war
refugees, nurses, ambulance drivers, and other witnesses or participants
bring the experience of war back to American domestic settings? What
special challenges face writers that seek to describe
the trauma of "total war"? What reading strategies can we, as
readers and critics, use most effectively to answer these questions? Is
it enough to be historically informed? What are the strengths and
weaknesses of trauma theory as an interpretive lens for reading post-war
texts?
These questions could be taken up in regard to several American writers,
including, but not limited to, the following:
*William Faulkner *Flannery O'Connor *Dalton Trumbo
*Thomas Pynchon *Norman Mailer *William March
*Ralph Ellison *Joy Kogawa *Edith Wharton
*Tim O'Brien
Papers might address questions of mourning or memorialization; they might
consider the impact of war experience to the lives and narratives
of women, children, and other non-combatants. For instance,
papers might explore immigration as a post-war phenomenon, and how the
challenges of assimilation and cultural preservation are complicated by
the traumatic experiences that often trigger relocation in the first
place. Papers might also address questions of memorialization or
mourning.
Please submit 1-2 page abstracts by September 15, 2000 via email (no
attachments, please) to: pearl.james@yale.edu
or mail them, by September 10th, to:
Pearl James
Yale English Dept.
PO BOX 208302
New Haven, CT 06520-8302
*Accepted panelists must join NEMLA by November 1, 2000.
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or write Erika Lin: elin@english.upenn.edu
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