From epic poetry to the English sonnet to the novel, literary forms have conspired with power to produce political identities and practices of domination. Indeed, one might argue that certain forms were produced by and in the service of power in the first instance. Likewise, writers and artists have mobilized (literary) form as a site for remix and resistance. Representation—literary, visual, or aural—necessarily involves structures of reading, seeing, and hearing that hyperlink to powerful modes of knowing and their rebellious detractors.
This year’s UCLA Comparative Literature Graduate Conference, featuring a keynote given by Northwestern University’s Michelle Wright, will explore the many ways in which form colludes and contends with, is created by and creates, power. Including a self-reflexive eye towards the assumptions of ‘form’ itself, the organizers are looking for papers that address the fraught and fruitful relations between form and power. How might literary forms function as imperial praxis? How do innovations in form incite subversion of and/or complicity with power? How is form archived and/or censored along powerful agendas? The organizers invite graduate students to present papers on these and related issues. They are open to papers in all disciplines and treating material from all time periods, including reflections on neo-fascism/white supremacy and the role of literature/art in the current political climate. Possible topics might include, but are not restricted to:
- Early Modern Poetic Innovation and the Nascent Nation
- Novel as Modern/Colonial Technology
- The Role of Epic in Nation-Building
- Transculturating the Romance Mode
- Internet Texts, Queer Sexuality, and Global Capital
- Postcolonial Drama and Rewriting the Canon
- Claiming Space and the Performance of Protest
- Race, Film and Policing
The organizers are open to papers in all disciplines and treating material from all time periods.
Submission Guidelines:
Please submit your 250-300 word proposal/abstract and a CV to ucla.complit.conf@gmail.com by Friday, January 6. Kindly mention “Submission: CLGraduate Conference” in the subject of the e-mail. All submissions should include the title of the paper, the abstract, and the name, affiliation, and contact information of the author. Please specify whether you are interested in (a) presenting a paper or (b) presenting/performing a creative work. If you are proposing a creative work, please specify any A/V needs and the length of the presentation. For any additional queries, please contact ucla.complit.conf@gmail.com.