CFP: International Conference on Narrative (10/15/2013; 3/27-30/2014)

2014 International Conference on Narrative

March 27-30, 2014

Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA

Plenary Speakers:

Leslie Bow, University of Wisconsin-Madison

Ruth Perry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Priscilla Wald, Duke University

Call for Papers: The International Conference on Narrative is an interdisciplinary forum addressing all dimensions of narrative theory and practice. We welcome proposals for papers and panels on all aspects of narrative in any genre, period, discipline, language, and medium.

Proposals for Individual Papers:

Please provide the title and a 300-word abstract of the paper you are proposing; your name, institutional affiliation, email address, and 2-3 keywords (e.g. cognitive studies; Victorian novels; narrator); and a brief statement (no more than 100 words) about your work and your publications.

Proposals for Panels:

Please provide a 700-word (maximum) description of the topic of the panel and of each panelist’s contribution; the title of the panel, the titles of the individual papers, and 2-3 keywords (e.g. cognitive studies; Victorian novels; narrator); and for each participant the name, institutional affiliation, email address, and a brief statement (no more than 100 words) about the person’s work and publications.

Deadline for Receipt of Proposals is Tuesday October 15, 2013

Please send proposals by email in PDF or Word to: narrative2014@mit.edu

For more information about the conference please visit: web.mit.edu/narrative2014

All participants must join the International Society for the Study of Narrative. For more information on the ISSN, please visit: http://narrative.georgetown.edu/

Conference Coordinators:

James Buzard (MIT) &

Sue J. Kim (UMass Lowell)

Call for Nominations: Perkins Prize for books published in 2011 (6/1/2012)

ISSN Perkins Prize

http://narrative.georgetown.edu/awards/perkins.php

The prize, awarded to the book making the most significant contribution to the study of narrative published in 2011, consists of $1,000 plus a contribution of $500 toward expenses for the winning author to attend the Narrative Conference where the award will be presented. For books published in 2011, please send inquiries or nominations (the name of the book is sufficient) to the Chair of the judging committee, Professor Brian Richardson: richb@umd.edu. Please send—or have the publisher send—a copy of the nominated book to each of the Committee members at the addresses listed below.  Publisher, third party, and self-nominations are appropriate.  Deadline for nominations is June 1, 2012. The winner will be announced at the Boston MLA Convention in January 2013, and the prize will be presented at the Narrative Conference in Manchester UK in June 2013.  

CFP: Perspective and Interior Spaces in Narrative before 1850 (3/1/2012; 1/3-6/2013)

Perspective and Interior Spaces in Narrative before 1850
Chair: Monika Fludernik and Suzanne Keen

This guaranteed ISSN panel for the 2013 Boston MLA Convention analyzes how interior spaces (rooms, houses, halls, prisons, offices, covered markets, etc.) are presented in narrative. It particularly examines (a) perspectivism in the description of interior spaces before 1850. Were these spaces presented perspectivally (or not) before the dominance of internal focalization? If a character's perceptions do not govern representation of the space he or she enters or moves in, what does? According to Franz Stanzel, eighteenth-century novels typically present interiors aperspectivally, mentioning a space and a few objects in it, but omitting any information of how these objects are arranged within the space. Is this true of earlier narratives, including verse romances? Perspectival rendering of space makes it possible for the reader to visualize objects in the building in relation to one another, even to map the room and its contents. The panel will contribute to the discussion of the recent spatial turn in literary studies, connect with theories about the poetics of space, and contextualize concepts of perspective with reference to literature, psychology, and the visual arts.

We invite 300 word abstracts of papers on narrative texts written between the Middle Ages and 1850, discussing what type of perspective, if at all, they use and what techniques they employ to evoke interiors. Please direct proposals and brief blurb-form vitas  to Monika Fludernik monika.fludernik@anglistik.uni-freiburg.de and Suzanne Keen KeenS@wlu.edu by 1 March 2012. 

Presenters must be members of the MLA.