CONFERENCE CALL MELOW 2022

 

CONFERENCE CALL

MELOW 2022

THE 22^nd 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 22^nd 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:

 

INFORMATION REQUIRED	FILL IN YOUR DETAILS HERE
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.
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
Please note: PPT presentation may not be possible this time, so please focus on oral presentations.
Name of Delegate Official designation  (Designation/Dept/College/University) Email id Title of Abstract
ABSTRACT [Text] 200 words approx.

 

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. 1^st 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