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> >From: Kathryn McEwen <[log in to unmask]> >Subject: 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. ******************* 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