Call For Papers

Literature and Politics

The 3rd annual conference of

The Australasian Association for Literature

University of Sydney

Monday July 6-Wednesday July 8 2009

Keynote Speakers:
Professor Steven Connor (Birkbeck College, University of London)
Professor Andrew Milner (Monash University)

The productive intersection of literature and politics has invigorated both fields from Plato’s utopian blueprint, The Republic ,to Barack Obama’s inauguration speech. Across forms and modes, history and place, through literary practice and theory, politics has challenged writers, readers and critics to think productively about the worlds in which they live, how these worlds came into being, and what the future might (or should) hold. Simultaneously, literature has long depicted and dissected the very meat of politics: power, war, revolution, nationality, race, class, gender, industrialisation, diasporas and imperialism. More recently, the politics of sexuality, the environment, terrorism, the holocaust and indigeneity have excited creative and critical interest. Literature continues to prompt public and academic discussion about questions of agency and identity, social organization and ideology, propaganda and censorship, history and the imaginary new worlds.

‘Literature and Politics,’ the third annual conference of the Australasian Association for Literature, aims to promote and provoke informed discussion on these and other topics between established and emerging scholars (including postgraduate students). Papers are invited that address the complex relationships between literature and politics, including, but not limited to, the following issues:

Power Sexuality War Class Ideology Literary Forms Identity Colonialism and Postcolonialism Literary Modes Economics
Literature as a Discipline Revolution Propaganda Diaspora Gender Race Ethnicity The Environment The Holocaust Conservatism
Literary Theory Publishing Satire Speculative Fiction Religion Utopias National and Transnational Literature Genre Censorship

The literary works discussed might be drawn from any period and from any language (though all papers will need to be presented in English).

Proposals should be 250-300 words in length and sent via email to:

conference@aal.asn.au by 30 April 2009 - extended to 8 May 2009 but please email us if you intend to send an abstract this week. Places are filling fast!

PLEASE NOTE: we've had some issues with an overzealous spam filter. If you have submitted an abstract but HAVEN'T heard back from us, please send another email to the address above (spam filter is now fixed!)

Conference address: www.aal.asn.au/conference/
AAL address: www.aal.asn.au

lone figure fragment by paul uhlmann