CONFERENCE
CALL
MELOW
2022
THE
22nd INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE OF
MELOW
(THE SOCIETY FOR THE STUDY OF THE MULTI-ETHNIC LITERATURES OF THE WORLD)
to
be held at the GOA CONVENTION CENTRE, DONA PAULA, GOA, from 23-25 SEPT 2022
ONE HUNDRED YEARS
OF T.S. ELIOT’S THE WASTE LAND
Right
from the time of its publication a century ago, T.S. Eliot’s magnum opus, The Waste Land has had an uneasy life
and much later also an uneasy after-life. Apart from its fragmented style, with
a plethora of allusions, and the appended Notes, Eliot’s various comments on
the poem have added to the difficulty of making sense of what was (or is) contained
in the poem. When he called the poem “just a piece of rhythmical grumbling,”
many critics like Edmund Wilson and much later Wyndham Lewis, latched on to it
to show that the poem stemmed from his personal pain and anguish. Fortunately,
critics now agree, as Russell Kirk has pointed out, that apart from dramatizing
the “broken inner order of the soul,” the poem also draws attention to “the
smashed outer order of European society.” Critics have scrutinized Eliot’s
politics, his religious beliefs, and even his sexual orientation.
Simultaneously, they have also applied to his work New Critical procedures,
focusing on its inner life, its structure and texture, its language
experiments, use of quotations, and other novelties and oddities.
A
century later, when we look back at The Waste Land, and try and assess
its influence on the literature that followed, we see it as a watershed marking
the Before and After of its publication. One could easily look at the poem in
two broad ways: (i) the poem per se and the implication of what it
contains within its 434 lines, and (ii) the way the poem relates to the outer
world and, by extension, its relevance to our times. The fact that the one
hundredth anniversary of the poem is being celebrated globally by academics and
non-academics shows that it is an important landmark not only in terms of what
it is but also because it has undeniably affected the course of poetry (and
literature) during the last one hundred years.
In a 3-day
conference to be held at GOA in 23-25 September 2022, the 22nd
International Conference of MELOW would like to take a look at The Waste
Land and its impact on the literature that followed in its wake. The
Conference will celebrate different aspects of this path-breaking poem,
inviting scholars to scrutinize it again and assess its aftereffects in
subsequent times.
Papers
will be divided into two categories:
I.
The Poem: Papers dealing with the text
itself, focusing on
· “He Do the Police
in Many Voices” – The voices of The Waste Land.
· “These fragments
have I shored...” – Classical allusions
· “Jug jug, jug jug”
– The use of music in The Waste Land
· “Keep the Dog far
hence” – T.S. Eliot’s Dead Gods and Anthropology
· “Burning Burning
Burning” – Fire and its Uses in The Waste Land
· “They Wash their
feet in Soda Water” – The Arid Waste and the Sound of Thunder
· “I had not thought death had undone so many” – The presence of Dante in The Waste Land
II.
The Aftermath and the Outreach: Assessing the
impact of The Waste Land
·
Is
the poem just a period piece or does it cut across spatio-temporal borders?
·
The Waste Land in the Classroom today
·
The Waste Land,Tradition, and the Individual Talent
·
Shanti, Shanti: Eliot’s Indian connection
·
The Waste Land as a literary
influence on specific texts
·
The Waste Land’s connection with Pop Culture
Those interested
in participating may send abstracts of 200 words by 20 May 2022. If your
abstract is accepted, you will be asked to enroll as a member of MELOW and also
pay a delegate fee (to be announced later).
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
2022: [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:
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INFORMATION REQUIRED
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FILL IN YOUR DETAILS HERE
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PANEL HEAD under which abstract may
be considered (I or II as given above):
Note:
Please send only ONE abstract. Double submissions will not be considered.
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MELUS/MELOW
conferences attended earlier (in which year and where):
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Are you currently
a member of MELOW? Or do you need a fresh / renewed membership? Please
specify.
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Competing for ISM
Award*: YES or NO
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Please note: PPT
presentation may not be possible this time, so please focus on oral
presentations.
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Name of Delegate
Official
designation (Designation/Dept/College/University)
Email id
Title of Abstract
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ABSTRACT [Text]
200 words approx.
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Send your abstract to melusmelow@gmail.com
Deadline for receipt of abstracts is 15 May 2022. [extended to May 20, midnight, IST]
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 research scholars, teachers,
or independent scholars.
This is an in-person conference. There will be no online sessions.
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
IMPORTANT DATES
15 May 2022: Deadline for Abstracts [extended to May 20, midnight, IST]
1 June 2022: Acceptance of abstracts to
be sent
15 July 2022: Full papers to be submitted
along with delegate and membership fees.
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, encourages younger scholars, and provides a forum for a fruitful
exchange between upcoming and senior scholars in literature.
MEJO, The
MELOW revamped journal has existed in hard print for about a decade. The latest
issue, released in February 2022, comprises a selection of papers presented at
the 21st MELOW Conference held at Shoolini University, Solan, HP.
Current Office
Bearers of MELOW w.e.f. 1st April 2020
The Governing
Body:
President: Prof. Manju Jaidka,
Shoolini University, Solan, HP
Vice-President: Prof. Debarati
Bandopadhyay, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, West Bengal
Secretary: Prof. Manpreet Kaur
Kang, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi
Jt. Secretary: Prof. Roshan Lal Sharma,
Central University of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala
Treasurer: Prof. Aneel Kumar
Raina, Panjab University, Chandigarh
Regional Representatives:
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)
Prof M.L. Raina (Chandigarh)
Prof Sachidananda Mohanty (Orissa, India)
Prof
Sushila Singh (Varanasi)
Dr
Vijay Sharma (Delhi)
International 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)
Assistant
International Advisors
Dr Ui Terramoto
(Japan)
Dr Khagendra
Acharya (Nepal)
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
