[Vwoolf] NeMLA CFP: Disability in Modernist Literature
Elise Swinford
eswinfor at english.umass.edu
Thu Sep 15 15:42:37 EDT 2016
A panel of potential interest to Woolf scholars:
NeMLA 2017
Panel: Disability in Modernist Literature
This panel takes up recent interventions in modernist studies through
the critical lens of disability. Evoking E.M. Forster’s appeal to “only
connect,” David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder claim that “[t]o represent
disability is to engage oneself in an encounter with that which is
believed to be off the map of 'recognizable' human
experiences….situat[ing] narrative in the powerful position of mediator
between two separate worlds” (Narrative Prosthesis: Disability and the
Dependencies of Discourse 5). From Mrs. Dalloway’s Septimus Smith and
his struggle to connect with the world around him while battling PTSD,
to Jake Barnes’ “emasculating” injury in The Sun Also Rises, the theme
of disability and (dis)connection permeates modernist literature.
While the modernist moment calls forth associations with new modes of
transportation and communication, speed, transnational engagement, and
global connection, disability is often discussed in terms of deficiency
and immobility, stagnation and limitation. The early twentieth century
marked a shift in attitudes to disability: while turn-of-the-century
understandings of cognitive and physical disability were limited, often
viewed as the result of moral failure, the modernist moment saw
reactions to extensive war trauma, new psychological theories, and the
eugenics movement. This panel seeks to explore how modernist writers
negotiated disability, either as represented in their work or in how
their personal experiences with disability shaped their aesthetics.
Papers may address any topic exploring disability in modernist
literature, including (but not limited to) gendered spaces, sensation/
perception, disabilities as tropes for deficiency and/or difference,
modern war/ trauma, pain, eugenics, the sexed body and ability, and
travel and movement.
To submit an abstract, please visit
https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/16375.
Deadline to apply: September 30, 2016 via NeMLA website.
Thanks!
--
Elise Swinford
Women, Gender, Sexuality Studies
University of Massachusetts Amherst
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