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> >From: "Amanda E Irwin Wilkins ([log in to unmask])"@lists.sas.upenn.edu > > >Subject: CFP: The Human and Its Others (10/1/05; ACLA, 3/23/06-3/26/06) > >CALL FOR PAPERS >ACLA '06: THE HUMAN AND ITS OTHERS >American Comparative Literature Association Annual Conference >Princeton University, March 23-26, 2006 > >ACLA 2006 will take place at Princeton University on March 23-26, >2006 (Thursday evening through Sunday noon). Hosted by the >Department of Comparative Literature, along with other Departments >and Programs in the humanities and the creative arts, the conference >will focus on a central theme, The Human and Its Others. > >What does it mean to be -- or not be -- "human?" In the long history >of attempts to draw boundaries around the human, in efforts to >define its mental, spiritual, physical, and linguistic >particularities, as well as its ideals, its failures, and, in the >view of some, its extinction in a 'posthuman' era, literature has >encountered almost every other discipline and domain of experience. >It has also participated in the creation of a series of "others" >against which -- and whom -- the human has defined and measured >itself. Looking to literary examples and theoretical distinctions, >to changes through time and through cultures, to explanations >arising from modern technologies as well as from ancient myths, we >will highlight a range of questions: How does literature, along with >the other creative arts, help define the human? How do definitions >differ according to time and place? How elastic is the idea of the >human? How has it been shaped by religion, politics, philosophy, >science, > economics, medicine, and technology? Against what images, ideas, >dreams, and nightmares has it been defined and refined? And why does >it seem to be a particularly pertinent, if not pressing, concern for >us today? The conference invites discussion of these various issues >as they have helped create our sense of literature, the >"humanities," and, of course, the study of Comparative Literature. > >The Conference Program Committee invites proposals for seminars on >any topic falling under the conference title's ample possibilities. >The categories below provide some examples: > >Language and the Human >Keeping Time >Literature, the Arts, the Human >Embodiment/Disembodiment >The Renaissance Individual >Literature and Human Rights >The Posthuman >Religion and the Human >Space and Movement >The Language of Animals >Translation and Metamorphosis >Media and the Human >Gendering the Human >The Invention of the Human >Cyborgs and Automata >Magic, Spirituality and the Human >The Human and the Natural World. >Endgames >Philosophy, Literature and the Human >Relativity and the Human >The Humanistic Tradition >Monsters and Angels >Representing the 'subject' > >The ACLA's annual conferences have a distinctive structure in which >most papers are grouped into twelve-person seminars that meet two >hours per day for the three days of the conference to foster >extended discussion. Some eight-person (or smaller) seminars meet >just the first two days of the conference. This structure allows >each participant to be a full member of one seminar, and to sample >other seminars during the remaining time blocks. Previous conference >programs that show this pattern are available online at >www.acla.org. The conference also includes plenary sessions, a >business meeting, a banquet, and other events. > >Proposals should be submitted to our website: >www.princeton.edu/~acla06. The deadline for seminar proposals is >October 1, 2005. Seminars will be posted as they are accepted in >October, 2005. The deadline for individual paper proposals for these >seminars is November 30, 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