UPDATE: Politics and the Artistic Response (1/10/05; 2/25/05-2/26/05)

UPDATE-- The deadline to send in proposals has been changed to January 10, 2005. See revised CFP below.

Politics and the Artistic Response
University of Missouri-Columbia's 14th Annual
English Graduate Student Association Conference

February 25-26, 2005
University of Missouri-Columbia
Columbia, MO

     In 1946, George Orwell wrote "What I have most wanted to do throughout the past ten years is to make political writing into an art. My starting point is always a feeling of partisanship, a sense of injustice... But I could not do the work of writing a book, or even a long magazine article, if it were not also an aesthetic experience." What's more, he said, "The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude."

     This conference invites scholars, critics, and creative writers to come together to discuss the relationship between art and politics-past and present, in the United States and other cultures. How does the politician inspire, agitate, or work against the artist? How does the artist respond to such inspiration, agitation, or oppression? Similarly, how does the artist inspire, agitate, or work against the politician?

     We encourage participation from scholars in a variety of fields; certainly, the psychoanalytical literary critic has as much to say on the subject as the student of American history. Or the religious studies scholar. Or the poet.

     We hope to create a number of diverse panels at this conference. Some might be devoted to:

-- Works of art considered in their original social and political contexts
-- Works created to speak to a specific time and place considered in and influencing the people of other times and places
-- Resistance and concurrence in popular culture-documentary films, comic books, country-western music, etc.
-- Artistic intersections of gender, race, and class
-- Religious Expressions as political response
-- Creative writers reading and discussing their own politically-relevant works

Proposals should be received by January 10, 2004, and should consist of a 250-350 word abstract or excerpt from a creative work. They may be sent either electronically or by post.

EGSA Conference Committee
c/o William Bradley
Dept. of English
107 Tate Hall
University of Missouri
Columbia, MO 65211
Email: wbbf29_at_mizzou.edu

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Received on Wed Dec 01 2004 - 12:37:18 EST