Please note the new deadline.
Papers are sought for a panel on “Writing HIV/AIDS and (Ethics of) Care” at the
2003 NEMLA convention in Boston, March 6-9.
Foregrounding the networks and ethics of mutual care amongst various
communities of people with HIV/AIDS is one way in which 'resistant' AIDS
narratives counter moralistic representations of PWAs. Interdependence and care
figure as central concepts in many AIDS narratives such as Rebecca Brown's "The
Gifts of the Body" and several doctor memoirs which describe the renewed
emphasis on doctors' caring responsibilities and the evolution from 'curing'
to 'caring' in the (early) AIDS crisis. Some of these narratives successfully
avoid portraying a heroic or idealized view of care and represent caring not as
an innate ability but as a difficult learning process. Other narratives,
however, copy certain problematic characteristics of care ethics, including the
essentialist view of care as a 'typically' or 'naturally' female trait. Katie
Hogan's "Women Take Care" exposes and argues against this "gendered mandate
that women should caretake" by showing how women's portrayal as 'natural'
carers forces them into at times self-effacing roles as wives, mothers, and
caretakers. In addition, many have questioned the way in which care ethics
highlight local or personal issues without taking into account the broader
social and political context.
This panel seeks to examine the diverse textual representations of caring for
(and by) people with HIV/AIDS. Papers may want to investigate the resistant
potential as well as the possible difficulties involved in constructing ethics
of care. Presenters could ask if care ethics can include broader social
critique and can help to illumine private/public tensions (as Fiona Robinson
suggests in "Globalizing Care"), or if a focus on the personal need to care
often (or even necessarily) results in overlooking public responsibilities (see
Cindy Patton's analysis of altruism and how the focus on voluntary care within
the context of the US AIDS crisis is at least partially caused by governmental
unwillingness to support a more universal public health care system).
Do representations of care question conventional gendered caretaking roles or
do they frequently reinforce such gender roles? What about the portrayals of
men taking care? (In this context, does the feminization of gay male carers
reinforce gender and sexual stereotypes?) Papers may explore how portrayals of
care have changed during the two decades of the AIDS crisis. How have the
deconstruction of the conventional 'sick role' and the changing doctor/patient
relationship affected these representations? This panel seeks to open up
discussion of these and other care-related questions.
Please submit proposals to Katrien De Moor by September 25, 2002.
E-mailed submissions are preferred and can be sent to:
Katrien.Demoor@rug.ac.be
Hard copies may be mailed to:
Katrien De Moor, English Department, Rozier 44, 9000 Gent, Belgium.
All panelists must be NEMLA members and registered for the convention by
December 1, 2002. For more information about NEMLA membership and/or the
convention, please visit www.nemla.org.
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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
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