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>From: [log in to unmask]
>
>Subject: CFP: The Politics of Friendship: Modernist 
>Literary/Philosophical Groups and their Embedded Politics (3/15/06; 
>book project)
>
>The Politics of Friendship: Modernist Literary/Philosophical Groups and their
>Embedded Politics (book project)
>
>proposal deadline: March 15, 2006
>contact: Fabio Akcelrud Durao ([log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask])
>
>Call for chapter proposals for the book project *The Politics of Friendship:
>Modernist Literary/Philosophical Groups and their Embedded Politics* to be
>submitted to the Cambridge Scholars Press.
>
>While the concept of modernism often invokes the lonely image of a flaneur,
>modernist literary or philosophical groups invite us to go beyond 
>the obsession
>with individual geniuses and to explore the dynamic politics as embedded in
>exemplary groups. The important role that some literary circles, such as
>Woolf's Bloomsbury Group, the avant-garde Tel Quel, or the Chinese "Crescent
>Moon", play in defining movements of modernism is well known. Yet, it is often
>implicitly assumed that a group is an assemblage of some quirky geniuses who
>tend to agree and disagree with each other passionately. More important than
>the celebrity culture of modernist literary groups, however, is how their
>agreements and disagreements come to shape what we know today as modernism, or
>rather, modernity.
>
>For this book project we look for chapter proposals investigating different
>aspects of modernist aesthetics and politics through the lenses of literary
>groups. Some of the pertinent questions to be addressed would be: What is the
>singularity of the group? How does the group define, identify, territorialize
>itself against, and at the same time in dynamic exchanges with, the mass
>culture "out there"? How does the friendship among group members affect their
>politics, and vice versa?
>
>We invite proposals that engage theories of the group as well as specific
>literary or philosophical circles such as Woolf's Bloomsbury, C.S. Lewis and
>Tolkien's Inglings, Freud's "secret committee," Wittgenstein's 
>"Vienna Circle,"
>the Tel Quel group, the transatlantic connections at the Leftbank, the poets
>gathering by Walden Pond, Dorothy Parker's Vicious Circle, and many others. By
>looking at specific groups, the book also seeks to explore their historical,
>political, and philosophical significance. Proposals that engage the 
>concept of
>modernity and the formation of literary/philosophical groups from a
>philosophical, psychoanalytical, and political perspective are especially
>welcome. Topics might include, but are not limited to:
>
>-- Theories of the group from Sigmund Freud, W.R. Bion, to Gilles Deleuze and
>Felix Guattari. Does the group work on identification with the father figure?
>Does Jacques Derrida's politics of friendship apply to the politics of the
>group? Is friendship political? And how does politics affect friendship or
>fraternity feelings?
>
>-- History and genealogy of literary groups, e.g., comparison of twentieth
>century literary groups with the eighteenth century literary salon.
>
>-- Sex and sexuality of the group: How do we understand the homoeroticism of
>certain literary groups? In what way are women in literary group subversive of
>their sexual norms? How does sexual/gender dynamics affect the working of the
>group?
>
>-- Any specific literary or philosophical group and its role in modernist
>aesthetic and political movements, including international groups.
>
>-- The organization, dissents, and dissemination of the group and analysis of
>its embedded politics.
>
>-- Influences or cross-cultural comparisons between international groups.
>
>-- Cultural/national identities, hybridity, and exchanges in the formation of
>the group.
>
>-- Transatlantic transmissions of modernist literary groups.
>
>-- Literary groups and their manifestoes, literary magazines and 
>print culture.
>
>-- Important feuds and disputes related to a specific group.
>
>-- New developments of literary groups: internet, activist groups, virtual
>"literary groups" of celebrities (such as "Oprah's Book Club").
>
>Please send chapter proposals (500-1000 words) to Fabio Akcelrud Durao
>([log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]). Deadline, March 15.
>
>

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