CALL FOR ABSTRACTS
INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON
FOUR HUNDRED YEARS OF AMERICAN LITERATURE: BACK TO THE BASICS
To be hosted by the
Dept of English
SHOOLINI UNIVERSITY, SOLAN
Date: 9-11 Oct. 2020
MELOW (The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the World), in collaboration with the Dept of English, Shoolini University, Solan, invites you to participate in its 20th International Conference in Oct 2020 (exact dates to be announced. The theme this time is “Four Hundred Years of American Literature” which aims at taking a look at the landmarks that dot the literary landscape of the USA.
This will be a virtual conference held in collaboration with Shoolini University, Solan, HP (India). The idea is to go BACK TO OUR BASICS (the BOB movement, as we call it), focusing on literary texts that have made a permanent place in the literary landscape. It is from these texts that theory must emerge, and not vice versa.
It was in the early 1600s that the first settlers in America began recording their experiences of the newly discovered continent. If we take their writings as the beginning of Americana, then it is safe to say that today we have covered 400 years of American Literature. It is time now to take a backward look and survey the scene. What are the texts and movements that stand out? And why? Are these texts important as pioneering attempts, or for extending the horizons of a genre? The papers presented at the Conference could evaluate the texts as the high points of an existing ‘tradition’ or as exhibiting ‘individuality’ that changed the literary terrain of the USA radically. In other words, the papers are expected to ‘situate’ the chosen text and evaluate its contribution to American literature in terms of, first, that particular historical period and next, ‘looking before and after,’ the practice of writing in the relevant genre, within the geographical expanse of the USA, in the 400 years during which American literature has flourished, with an identity of its own. Your Abstracts should reflect the orientation of your paper based on both of these ideas.
The proposed conference will be online, so accommodations issues are not relevant. However, there will be a registration/delegate fee once the abstracts are accepted.
We wish to discuss outstanding authors, texts, and movements that serve as signposts and landmarks in the USA. The focus will include the prominent
1. Poetry: Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, Robert Frost, Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath
2. Fiction: Nathaniel Hawthorne, Mark Twain, Ernest Hemingway, Herman Melville, William Faulkner, Toni Morrison.
3. Drama: Eugene O’Neil, Arthur Miller, Tennessee Williams, Lorraine Hansberry
4. Non-Fiction: Thomas Paine, Emerson, Thoreau
5. Literary Movements: Transcendentalism, Harlem Renaissance, Native American Literature, Asian-American Literature, Confessional Poets, Beat.
Abstract (not exceeding 250 words) addressing the twin ideas of relevance, and clearly indicating the genre or the Literary Movement under which you want your paper to be considered, are invited from faculty and research scholars. Postgraduate students may participate as the audience. All abstracts will be screened and only the best will be selected for presentation. There will be a membership/delegate fee (to be sent once the abstracts are selected). Participants who do not wish to present papers may also attend. Certificates will be given to all who register for the seminar.
Send in your abstracts (of about 200 words) with a brief bio-note, to melusmelow@gmail.com by the 5th of September 2020.
About MELOW
MELOW (The Society for the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the World) was first set up in 1998 as MELUS-India. It is an academic organization, among the foremost of its kind in India. The members are college and university teachers, scholars and critics interested in literature, particularly in world literatures, and literary connections across borders of time and space. The organization meets every year over an international conference. It seeks to maintain academic standards, encourage younger scholars and provides a forum for a fruitful exchange between upcoming and senior scholars in literature.
Office Bearers of MELOW w.e.f 1st April 2020:
President: Prof Manju Jaidka (Solan, HP)
Vice-President: Prof Debarati Bandopadhyay (Santiniketan)
Secretary: Prof Manpreet Kaur (Delhi)
Jt. Secretary: Prof Roshan Sharma (Dharamshala)
Treasurer: Prof Anil Raina (Chandigarh)
Executive Members:
Prof Dipankar Purkayastha (Silchar)
Dr Seema Bhupendra (Udaipur)
Dr Neela Sarkar (Kolkata)
Dr Jyoti Mishra (Chattisgarh)
Dr Vandhana Sharma (Jammu)
Dr Radha Gautam (Surat)
Dr Neepa Sarkar (Bangalore)
Dr Meenu Gupta (Chandigrh)
Dr Jap Preet Bhangu (Longowal, Pb)
Advisory Board
Prof Giorgio Mariani (U of Rome, Italy)
Prof Rajeshwari Pandharipande (U of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, USA)
Prof Mukesh Williams (Soka University, Japan)
Prof Pawel Jędrzejko (U of Silesia, Katowice, Poland)
Prof M.L. Raina (Chandigarh)
Prof Sachidananda Mohanty (Orissa, India)
Prof Sushila Singh (Varanasi)
Dr Vijay Sharma (Delhi)
Assistant International Advisors:
Dr Ui Terramoto (Japan)
Dr Khagendra Acharya (Nepal)
Our website: www.melow.in
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/
Our earlier conferences are listed below.
1. 1998 September: in Hyderabad
2. 2000 Jan: in Hyderabad
3. 2002 Jan: in Hyderabad
4. 2003 April: in Chandigarh
5. 2004 Jan: in Hyderabad
6. 2005 March: in Chandigarh
7. 2006 March: in Hyderabad
8. 2007 March: in Chandigarh
9. 2008 November: at Santiniketan, WB
10. 2010 Feb: in Chandigarh
11. 2011 Sept.: in Hyderabad
12. 2013 Feb: in Chandigarh
13. 2014 Feb: at Jammu University
14. 2015 Feb: in Chandigarh
15. 2016 Feb: at IPU, Dwarka, Delhi
16. 2017 March: in Chandigarh
17. 2018 March: in Dharamshala
18. 2019 March: in Jamia Millia, Delhi
19. 2020 Feb: in PU, Chandigarh
Organising Committee: Department of English, FMSLA, Shoolini University
1. Prof Manju Jaidka
2. Dr Purnima Bali
3. Mr Neeraj Pizar
4. Ms. Lata Negi
5. Ms. Sakshi Sundaram
