21st MELOW INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE

 

CONFERENCE CALL

 

MELOW 2021

THE 21^st INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF

MELOW (THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF THE MULTI-ETHNIC LITERATURES OF THE WORLD)

to be organized by

SHOOLINI UNIVERSITY, SOLAN, HP, INDIA (https://shooliniuniversity.com/)

https://shooliniuniversity.com/) 

FROM 12 TO 14 NOVEMBER 2021

 

CONFERENCE THEME: ILLNESS, HEALING, AND THE LITERARY IMAGINATION

We are going through a traumatic period that has been unprecedented in human history, with the COVID 19 pandemic raging uncontrollably across the globe. In such circumstances, what does one do? Do we sit and lament, bewailing our fate? Or do we find ways of coping with the catastrophe? Since March 2020 the world has moved into cyber-space and much of our activities are conducted in the virtual world. Seminars and conferences, too, have been transformed into virtual events. Our organization MELOW, too, has moved into the virtual world, at least for the time being. The 2021 Conference, hosted by Shoolini University, Solan, HP, will be a virtual one. However, if the pandemic situation improves, we may have a blended format.

The 2021 MELOW International Conference on “Illness, Healing, and the Literary Imagination” aims to bring together scholars from different disciplines to debate on the literary culture of sickness and recovery from Giovanni Boccaccio and T. S. Eliot to the Bible and the Lotus Sutra. Outbreaks of diseases, epidemics and pandemics generate emotions of fear, melancholy and sadness, encapsulating a social experience through a language that often proves inadequate for the given task. The fear of contamination further destroys the moral fibre and corrupts the imagination, giving rise to melancholy and sadness, and at times resignation and scepticism. The journey to recovery and healing can be long and slow but the resilient human spirit will work towards that goal without losing hope. Suffering and its aftermath together give a new life force to language and society.

The 21st International Conference of MELOW will explore themes of dis-ease, isolation, loneliness, and vulnerability together with a resurgence of hope and regeneration. An exploration of collective experience through language, literature, memoir, cinema, and other forms of narration across disciplines can create human solidarity in an incomprehensible universe.

We propose to divide the conference papers into panels A to F. Interested delegates may send their abstracts (200 words) to the given email id with a copy to melusmelow@gmail.com :

A.       Illnesses and the Political Allegory: Sick/Ailing bodies as political sites. This involves the use of sickness to exemplify different kinds of political arrangements. Abstracts to be sent to roshanlal.sharma@gmail.com with a copy to melusmelow@gmail.com

B.       Individual Narrative and Frame Narrative: Generic conventions and disease. How representations of disease are determined by the choice of a genre, eg, in drama, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, film, etc. Abstracts to be sent to manpreetkang.ipu@gmail.com with a copy to melusmelow@gmail.com

C.       Illness, Pandemic Thriller and the Plague: Socio-cultural construction of disease in literature. How diseases are understood and explained in terms of the cultural and belief systems of a society. Abstracts to be sent to jkbhangu@gmail.com with a copy to melusmelow@gmail.com

D.      Representation of disease as a microcosm or macrocosm: Tracing the effect of disease on individuals or societies.  History, Rhetoric and Memory of illnesses and their cure. Abstracts to be sent to vandanacuj2017@gmail.com with a copy to melusmelow@gmail.com

E.       Epidemics, Pandemics and/in Science Fiction: Disease as a basis for pure speculation. Use of epidemics and pandemics for creating alternative societies or systems. Abstracts to be sent to debaratiband@gmail.com  with a copy to melusmelow@gmail.com

F.       Creativity in Crisis: Understanding the impact of the Pandemic on humanity worldwide. The impact of the pandemic on the fields of Science, Sociology, Literature, Music and other arts. The Mantra of Healing from Religious and Scientific Texts. Abstracts to be sent to dipankar151@gmail.com with a copy to melusmelow@gmail.com

MODE OF ABSTRACT SUBMISSION:

Abstracts may be sent in the TEXT BOX of your email (not as attachment)

The subject line of your message should read thus: ABSTRACT 2021: [YOUR NAME]

If you’re competing for the ISM Award*: state clearly “Indian citizen below 40 competing for the ISM Award”

The format given below is to be followed for the submission of abstract:

PANEL HEAD under which abstract may be considered (A, B, C, D, E, or F, as given above):   Note: Please send only ONE abstract to only ONE of the given panels. Double submissions will not be considered.

MELUS/MELOW conferences attended earlier (in which year and where)

Are you currently a member of MELOW? Or do you need a fresh / renewed membership? Please specify.

Competing for ISM Award*: YES or NO

Name of Delegate Official designation (Designation/Dept/College/University) Email id Title of Abstract

ABSTRACT [Text] 200 words approx.

 

 Deadline for receipt of abstracts is 20 June 2021. 

All abstracts will be peer-reviewed before they are accepted. Once acceptance letters are sent, full papers (2500-3000 words) will be invited from all participants. Only those who submit their papers by the deadline will be invited to participate in the conference.

Presenters need to be at least postgraduate: research students, teachers, or independent scholars.

There will be no Registration fee for online presentations. However, all delegates need to be members of MELOW. In case you are not a member, you may apply for membership once your abstract is accepted. Details of membership fee will be sent to you along with your acceptance letter.

*  ISAAC SEQUEIRA MEMORIAL AWARD

In the memory of the late Prof Isaac Sequeira, MELOW annually awards a prize for the best paper presented by a young scholar at its conference. The award comprises a certificate and a cash prize of Rs. 5,000.

The competition is open to Indian citizens who are members of MELOW. The competing participant/delegate should be below forty years at the time of the conference. The abstract and paper should be submitted by the stipulated deadline in the required format.

For further inquiries please email: melusmelow@gmail.com

Our website: www.melow.in

Host institution: https://shooliniuniversity.com/

IMPORTANT DATES:

10 May 2021: Announcement of the Conference

20 June 2021: Deadline for Abstracts

5 July 2021: Acceptance of abstracts to be sent

15 September 2021: Full papers to be submitted by ISM Competitors. Membership fee to be sent, or membership to be renewed. 

15 October 2021: Full papers to be submitted by all other delegates. Membership fee to be sent, or membership to be renewed. 

 

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.

MELOW Office Bearers

President: Prof Manju Jaidka (Solan, HP)

Vice-President: Prof Debarati Bandyopadhyay (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 (Chandigarh)

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)

Dr Khagendra Acharya, Kathmandu, Nepal

Dr Ui Teramoto, Soka University, Japan

 Local Organizing Committee

(Shoolini University, Solan, HP)

Prof Tej Nath Dhar

Dr Purnima Bali

Sh Neeraj Pizar

Ms Sakshi Sundaram

 

Reach us on: www.melow.in, www.melusmelow.blogspot.in

and https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100003036474708&fref=ts

Email: melusmelow@gmail.com

MELOW 2021 is our 21^st Conference. Our earlier conferences are listed below.

 

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 February: in Panjab University, Chandigarh

20. 2020 October: Virtual/Hybrid, in Shoolini University, Himachal