CFP: Figures of Convulsion (09/01/05; 11/18-19/05)


The graduate students of the Department of German at Princeton 
University announce a graduate conference to be held November 18-19, 
2005.  We invite abstracts from graduate students in German studies 
and other disciplines in the humanities and social sciences:

Figures of Convulsion

Literature, philosophy, visual art, music and film often figure 
discontinuity and interruption as moments of convulsion.  Originally
a medical term, convulsion has come to refer to both bodily and
psychic phenomena--for instance, spasms, shivers, laughter,
contractions, hysteria, paroxysm, orgasm and epilepsy.  These
conditions raise the question of what constitutes a convulsion.  Is
paroxysmal activity necessarily irregular, unpredictable, and
discontinuous?  To what extent is it involuntary?  Must it always be
pathological, or can it manifest itself as benign or even
therapeutic?

We are interested not only in how the figure of convulsion
represents the intersection of certain bodily and psychic
activities, but also in how this trope gains currency in a variety
of discourses.  The vocabulary and imagery of convulsion is used to
describe certain political and social experiences, such as
agitation, unrest, excitement or revolution, as well as violent
geological disturbances (earthquakes or volcanic eruptions).
Further, convulsion is often also a means of representation--for
example, unstable images produced by certain photographic and filmic 
practices, as well as explosive sounds that destabilize the relation 
of signal, noise and silence.

We are seeking papers that examine interruptions of any kind that
result in a transformation or radical shift, whether as formal
quality or thematic element.

Please send a 50-word summary and a 500-word abstract to 
[log in to unmask], [log in to unmask], and
[log in to unmask] by September 1, 2005.
-- 
Stefani Engelstein
German Studies Call for Papers List Editor

Assistant Professor of German
Department of German and Russian Studies
University of Missouri
454 GCB
Columbia, MO  65211
Telephone: (573) 882-9450
Fax: (573) 884-8456
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*******************
The German Studies Call for Papers List
Editor: Stefani Engelstein
Assistant Editor:  Meghan McKinstry
Sponsored by the University of Missouri
Info available at: http://www.missouri.edu/~graswww/resources/gerlistserv.html