CFP

CFP: Southeastern Medieval Association Annual Meeting (SEMA)
October 15-17, 2009
Submissions due: June 11, 2009

*Monstrous Binaries: Monster Theories in/at Play*

“It is conventional to call ‘monster’ any blending of dissonant
elements. I call ‘monster’ every original inexhaustible
beauty.”—Alfred Jarry, “Les Monstres”

Whether or not it is beautiful, the monster is certainly
inexhaustible. The BABEL Working Group invites submissions that
explore the inexhaustibility of literary monsters as they both demand
and defy binary characterizations. How might binary models explain,
occlude, or displace other monstrous possibilities? The invitation is
purposefully open and might include approaches that range from
postcolonial theory to Russian Formalism, from queer theory to
ecocriticism (and all points in between/beyond).

The panel will be a part of the 2009 SEMA conference, and its goal is
to bring together disparate readings of monsters, letting them
commingle, coexist, and (perhaps) coalesce for a few minutes.
Abstracts should be for papers fifteen minutes in length. They may
offer focused examinations of primary texts or more abstract,
theoretical discussions, but all submissions should make explicit
their theoretical genealogy.

A *partial* list of approaches might include: Kristeva, Foucault,
Girard, Plumwood, Derrida, Bakhtin, Lacan, Cohen, Levi-Strauss,
Deleuze and Guattari, Propp, Zizek, Canguilhem, Butler, and/or Freud.

Deadline for Submission: 11 June 2009

Send Abstracts (150-250 words) to:

Timothy Asay (tasay@uoregon.edu) or

Marcus Hensel (mhensel1@uoregon.edu)

BABEL Working Group: http://www.siue.edu/babel/Babel-Home.htm

SEMA 2009 Conference: http://sitemason.vanderbilt.edu/site/gShQhq/sema2009