Call for Papers/Seminar Participants
American Comparative Literature Association Annual Meeting
This Year's Conference Title: "Crossing Over"
See the conference web site at: http://www.acla.org/index2_frames.html
The Culture of Politics, The Politics of Culture
Submission Deadline: October 1, 2002
Conference Date: April 4-6, 2003
University of California, San Marcos
San Marcos, California
Organizers: Prof. Samuel Chambers & Prof. Patrick Finn
Politics today happens outside of mainstream institutional structures; it
has taken to the airwaves, the Internet, and a whole host of other
information venues. Scholars have noted the political implications of these
cultural phenomena for decades. In this session, we are concerned to go
further, to argue for a political core at the center of culture.
Noam Chomsky's early work on corporate media posited an organized public
deception based on a form of news media controlled by the elite, a position
complemented by Bordieu's assertion of the inescapably oppressive nature of
televisual expression. Yet, following Foucault, we are concerned with the
notion that power is both restrictive and productive-this includes the power
of the media, of film, and of television. The current state of information
technology shows that while politics and culture may have intrinsic ties to
existing power structures, there are currently functioning strategies and
tactics by which these forms of expression can call their own means of
production into question in useful and even exciting ways.
This session will examine the thesis that culture is properly political-not
just a side effect, a symptom or a hindrance to mainstream politics.
Possible topics for discussion might include:
*Political media: Can media be seen as a double-edged sword, which allows
for productive expression from within?
*Global English: what are its implications as a commodity and/or medium of
exchange?
*Cryptography: subject of numerous expressions of popular culture today -
could this code making/code breaking realm offer a model for political
communication?
*Sovereignty and Boundaries: what happens to the boundaries between cultural
and politics when boundaries between sovereign nations are eroded or
challenged by an oligarchic media model?
*"The Play's the Thing": the recent explosion of television dramas that use
politics as their primary subject matter shows that we need a new
consideration of the issues at stake--do the ideas of Baudrillard and
McLuhan need to be rethought if we are to come to terms with this new form
of participatory democracy?
*The Politics of HBO: what is the significance (if any) of this new
"network" and its success in presenting political/dramatic series such as
The Sopranos (which posits a politics of the family) and Six Feet Under
(which capitalizes on a politics of the closet)?
*Rethinking Cultural Politics: can cultural politics still be thought of as
something secondary to institutional politics?
*What would be the use/effect of viewing political culture and cultural
politics in a far more participatory light?
*Conversely, could this move merely offer critical thinkers a means of
exploiting an ineffectual armchair politics?
Send 300-word abstract and a brief bio by October 1st to:
Samuel Chambers, Saint Mary's College of Maryland mailto:sam@fronesis.com or
Patrick Finn, St. Mary's College, Calgary mailto:patrickfinn@shaw.ca
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