CFP: Museum Discourse in/and Literature (3/15/05; MLA '05)

Museum Discourse in/and Literature

Proposed Special Session
MLA December 27-30, 2005
Washington, D.C.

Andreas Huyssen (1995) has pointed out that “Few who have written on
the museum in the 1980s have . . . argued that we need to rethink (and
not just out of a desire to deconstruct) the museum beyond the binary
parameters of avant-garde versus tradition, museum versus modernity (or
postmodernity), transgression versus co-option, left cultural politics
versus neoconservatism.” How can literary (and cultural) criticism
contribute to a rethinking of past and present museum theory and
practice? How does literature (not limited to English-language)
reproduce and/or critique museums’ assumptions regarding nation,
history, tradition, origin, authenticity, totality, art, universality,
autonomy, race, class, and gender? How is literature mediated by
museum discourse? How might the insights of museum studies be applied
to the analysis of literature? Barbara Black (2000), Eric Gidal
(2001), and Catherine Paul (2002) have demonstrated various approaches
to these questions. What other approaches are possible?

Papers dealing with the avant-garde, visual arts critique of museum
theory and practice (e.g., Futurism, Dadaism, Surrealism; Fluxus,
Haacke, Buren, Broodthaers) will also be considered.

Please send 1-page abstracts and brief bio. by March 15 to John Pedro
Schwartz <jpedro_at_mail.utexas.edu>.

John Pedro Schwartz
Ph.D. Candidate
University of Texas at Austin
Henderson Fellow
Department of English
University of Vermont

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Received on Wed Feb 02 2005 - 17:10:16 EST