MLA Seattle 2020
Executive Committee for the Forum on Sixteenth-Century French Literature
A/ NEW WORK IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH LITERARY AND CULTURAL STUDIES
The Executive Committee for the Forum on Sixteenth-Century French Literature invites one-page proposals for papers to be delivered at the MLA in Seattle, 9-12 January 2020. We will consider scholarship from a variety of perspectives and theoretical approaches. We welcome abstracts from scholars at any stage of their careers. Please send a one-page abstract and a brief CV to Jan Miernowski (jmiernow@wisc.edu) by March 10, 2019.
The EC for the Forum on Sixteenth-Century French Literature invites one-page proposals and a brief CV from scholars at any stage of their careers. We will consider scholarship from a variety of theoretical approaches.
B/ NATURE/CULTURE: PERSPECTIVES FROM 16TH-CENTURY FRENCH LITERATURE
Latour, Haraway, and others have of late sought to put into question the zone of (dis-)connection between Nature and Culture, leading to formulations such as Natureculture, Nature-Culture, and Nature/Culture. Agglutinated, hyphenated, or slashed, the demarcation is a boundary that connects as it separates. The Executive Committee for the Forum on Sixteenth-Century French Literature invites paragraph-length proposals for papers to be delivered at the MLA in Seattle, 9-12 January 2020, which explore such formulations from the perspective of 16th-century French literature. We will consider scholarship from a variety of perspectives and theoretical approaches, although preference might be given to papers that nuance or (carefully and productively) challenge contemporary theory, as well as to papers that offer focused close readings. We welcome abstracts from scholars at any stage of their careers. Please send a paragraph-length abstract and a brief CV to Jan Miernowski (jmiernow@wisc.edu) by March 10, 2019.
C/ TRAUMA AND AFFECT IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE
The challenge of living through “interesting times” always leaves its mark on literature and culture. How does trauma manifest itself in the cultural productions of the sixteenth century in France? The Executive Committee for the Forum on Sixteenth-Century French Literature invites proposals for papers to be delivered at the MLA in Seattle, 9-12 January 2020, for a panel which will interrogate the links between trauma, witnessing, memory, and culture, in a century marked by massive social and political upheaval. What do acts of witnessing traumas – personal or political, individual, or collective – tell us about the affective scope of the early modern? We welcome abstracts from scholars at any stage of their careers. Please send a paragraph-length abstract and a brief CV to Jan Miernowski (jmiernow@wisc.edu) by March 10, 2019.
D/ NEW WORK IN SIXTEENTH-CENTURY FRENCH POETRY
The Executive Committee for the Forum on Sixteenth-Century French Literature invites one-page proposals for papers on sixteenth-century French poetry, to be delivered at the MLA in Seattle, 9-12 January 2020. We will consider scholarship from a variety of perspectives and theoretical approaches. We welcome abstracts from scholars at any stage of their careers. Please send a one-page abstract and a brief CV to Jan Miernowski (jmiernow@wisc.edu) by March 10, 2019.
E/ CIVIC RESPONSIBILITY IN EARLY MODERN FRANCE
As Ciceronian ideals of civitas and public persona were introduced to France in the Renaissance, the nascent French nation would witness a marked increase in social awareness as well as reflections on moral and political philosophy in the sixteenth century. Ideas of civic duty or responsibility are found across the era’s treatises and literary output, the diffusion of which to the public was amplified to unforeseen rates. What do these published texts (prose works, poems, pamphlets, essays) teach us about civic responsibility, as it was understood and practiced in sixteenth-century France? The Executive Committee for the Forum on Sixteenth-Century French Literature welcomes abstracts from scholars at any stage of their careers. Please send a one-page abstract and a brief CV to Jan Miernowski (jmiernow@wisc.edu) by March 10, 2019.