CFP: [Poetry] Bodies In Sacred Song: Poetry, Physicality and Spirituality/AWP 2009 panel

Bodies In Sacred Song: Poetry, Physicality and Spirituality
Proposed panel for AWP in Chicago, February 11-14, 2009

Poetry has entered a 21st century where ironized distance, cynicism, and
urbanity function as aesthetic norms; in such a setting, oracular,
mystical, or devotional poetry has virtually disappeared from the public
eye, despite a vibrant tradition via writers such as George Herbert and
John Donne, William Blake, Cristina Rossetti, Walt Whitman, W. B. Yeats,
H.D., Diane DiPrima, and many more. How do poets today navigate the nexus
of spiritual experience, bodily being, and poesis? What are the unique
challenges and resources offered to this kind of practice by the
contemporary period, and what can we carry forward, or reach back toward,
from our poetic antecedents? What, today, constitutes a sacred text or
its exegesis, a praise poem, or a discourse of faith and doubt? How does
the academy interact with such writing?

This panel invites proposals of 250 words exploring these issues;
scholarly approaches, creative approaches--first-person or otherwise--and
work along the spectrum between those poles are all welcome. Should you
be interested in serving as a moderator, please send a brief CV and/or
description of your interest.

Email proposals and contact information to vab6_at_buffalo.edu by April
11, 2008.

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Received on Thu Feb 07 2008 - 11:38:44 EST