CFP: Conference at Ohio University

Defining the New: Experiments and Innovations in English Studies

A Conference sponsored by the Ohio University English Department and Quarter After Eight

October 22-23, 2010 / Ohio University / Athens, Ohio
Keynote Address by: Anne Francis Wysocki
Special Reading by: Imad Rahman

“Literature is news that stays news.”
-Ezra Pound

It was Alexander Pope who remarked “the sound must seem an echo to the sense,” while Ezra Pound admonished writers to “make it new.” This conference seeks to explore how theorists, critics, compositionists, essayists, fictionists, poets, and other writers have defined or used different critical paradigms, as well as experimented with different forms to make their writing new or to more perfectly echo their sense.

This conference will dovetail with a feature of critical essays on the history and future of experimental writing in Quarter After Eight, a literary journal focused on innovative writing. All conference papers will be considered for publication in this feature.

We are looking for work from the fields of Comparative Literature, Composition Studies, Creative Writing, Critical Theory, Folklore, Linguistics, Literary History, Rhetoric, and other disciplines related to literary study.

Possible topics:

§ New definitions of the term “experimental”

§ The future of experimental writing

§ Re-examining early literary experiments, e.g. the work of Alexander Pope, William Blake, Laurence Sterne, the Romantics, the Modernists, Magic Realists, etc.

§ Pushing the boundaries of rhetorical traditions and/or pedagogies

§ Pushing the boundaries of academic discourse

§ Bridging or transgressing genres

§ Post-colonial innovations in form

§ The influence of critical theory on literary experiments

§ L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E or post-avant poetry

§ Lyric Essays

§ Prose poetry and flash fiction

§ Technology’s influence on form

Please submit a 1-2 page abstract or a 5-10 page representative sample of your creative work by September 1, 2010 to:

Defining the New: Experiments and Innovations in English Studies
Ohio University Department of English
360 Ellis Hall
Athens, OH 45701