CFP: Modernism and the Mimetic Faculty (4/25/05; MSA, 11/3/05-11/6/05)

Modernist Studies Association 7th Annual Conference
November 3-6, 2005: Chicago

Proposed Panel: Modernism and the Mimetic Faculty

One of the most shopworn maxims about aesthetic modernism is that,
across a wide range of styles, genres, and media, modernism is
resolutely anti-mimetic. The concept of mimesis that underwrites this
view, however, tends to be a notion of visual reflection that often
reduces the complexity of the issues involved. As Stephen Halliwell's
_The Aesthetics of Mimesis_ demonstrates, Plato's own account is
considerably more ambiguous and nuanced than the mimesis-as-mirror
model, and Aristotle seems to have had something different in mind
entirely. This proposed panel looks to broaden the understanding of
modernist aesthetic practices in relation to other theories of mimesis,
the mimetic, and imitation. Two directions of especial interest are the
anthropological notion of the mimetic faculty in Walter Benjamin, and
psychoanalytic models of mimesis and identification as elaborated by
Diana Fuss, Mikkel Borch-Jacobsen, Judith Butler, and others. Other
approaches--such as those theorized by Girard, Gebauer and Wulf, Adorno

and/or Horkheimer, Bhabha, etc.=97are also welcome. Please send a
one-page abstract and brief CV by April 25 to Brian Glavey at
glavey_at_virginia.edu.

___________________________________
Brian Glavey
232 Monte Vista Av.
Charlottesville, VA 22903
434-825-7460

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Received on Fri Apr 01 2005 - 04:09:25 EST