MCLC: MLA update

[Denton, Kirk]

MCLC LIST
From: Lupke, Christopher <lupke at wsu.edu>
Subject: MLA update
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Dear Colleagues,

The Modern Language Association (MLA) is undergoing the most dramatic
restructuring in 40 years. This has particular dividends for those of us
in Chinese studies. The organization is divided into a legion of executive
committees, the primary clearing house for sessions (code for panels). To
date, these have been heavily weighted toward English and European
languages. Currently, there are two East Asian divisions, and that's it.
The new framework proposes THREE for Chinese: something like "Chinese to
the Ming"; "Ming and Qing Chinese"; and "Modern and Contemporary Chinese"
(these are my proposed revisions to their current proposed titles, which
are tentative). Additionally, they propose a "Comparative East Asian"
division. (They also propose a "Japanese" and a "Korean" division each,
but I'll just focus on the ones that impact Chinese.

What this means is that instead of having us all sandwiched into two
divisions like some Orientalist fantasy, Chinese will now have 3 divisions
in addition to the comparative one as well as giving much-needed oxygen to
our colleagues in Japanese and Korean so that we are not all fighting with
each other over the academic equivalent of one saltine cracker.

Why is this important?

The MLA is the most important professional organization for literary
studies and language studies, and certainly one, if not the, most
important organization for cultural studies in North America. It is not a
social club. If you are graduate student in Chinese language and
literature/culture, you will likely at some point be called to interview
at the MLA. If you are a professor at a research institution with graduate
students, your students will need the MLA. If you are interested in
attracting a book publisher, it has the largest book exhibit of its kind,
and much "business" is conducted at the MLA. Related initiatives are
already underway in the MLA publishing wing, which publishes many books on
literature -- translation as well as scholarly. Chinese is largely
uncharted territory for them, but they are keen to correct that.

The word "modern" might stop some people from taking interest, but it is
important to keep in mind that they view the word expansively. Any
language currently in use is considered "modern," and the MLA has many
divisions in early language studies of languages still spoken. It was
created over a hundred years ago in contradistinction to classical
languages such as ancient Greek, Latin and Hebrew. They have high hopes to
increase the prominence of Chinese of all periods in the organization.

If you are already an MLA member, please, please go to the MLA website and
log into the "MLA Commons" then click on "An Open Discussion of the MLA
Group Structure." You can view the "draft proposal" and make comments by
clicking any paragraph. Please make comments -- preferably supporting the
changes (suggestions are of course welcome). This is not set yet, and
there could be push back from the vested interests, so we need voices of
support.

If you are not an MLA member but are in literary/cultural studies, please
consider becoming a member. The new "groups" (formerly called "divisions")
will need leadership. This will be particularly important for classical
scholars, as the MLA already attracts a fair number of modern scholars.
Thanks for your attention to this.

Christopher Lupke