CALL FOR PAPERS
23rd MELOW INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE
To be held in Chandigarh on
6-8 October 2023
Borders, Boundaries, Lines of Control: Literature across
Disciplines in Contemporary Times
Ever since English
literature made its way into academia, after enjoying a healthy relationship with
other fields of knowledge for centuries, its connection with them became somewhat
ambivalent, largely because of what Joe Moran calls its “woolly and
ill-focused” disciplinary character. This is reflected in the thinking and
practice of several academic scholars who pleaded simultaneously for its limited
interdisciplinarity and disciplinary consolidation and its “intrinsic” as well
as “extrinsic” readings. To get over
this ambivalence and its resultant anomalies, some tightened the disciplinary boundaries
of literature with so much unbounded fervour that literature lost its
connection with its very wellspring: life and its varied manifestations. Fortunately,
soon after, people within the academy realized the need to restore literature'
s connection with life by linking it with other branches of knowledge, but
within the varied rubrics of isms, posts, and post-posts, which created new
constricting prisms for reading literature.
The theme of the 2023
MELOW International Conference suggests that in order to broaden the reach and
influence of literature and to ensure its continued relevance in our times, it
must move beyond the limiting isms and posts and develop strong links with the
variegated life on the planet by forging links with the ever-expanding modes of
knowledge. That is how literature and literary
studies can take cognizance of the efforts of writers to deal with issues of
our time, which, among others, include issues related to environment, health
and disease, violence and its varied forms, and their impact, and the
exponential growth of technology.
A 3-day conference will
be held in Chandigarh from 6 to 8 Oct 2023.
We invite abstracts under the following panels:
1. The Thin Red Line:
human/animal/non-human subjectivities as portrayed in literature
2. Violence/Trauma: memory and post
memory in literature
3. The Reel and the Real: film and
visual arts
4. Death and Disease in Literary
Discourses across cultures
5. Truth, Post-Truth, Alt-facts and
historical memory in literature and other art forms
6. Science, technology, and the
literary imagination
Please note:
The focus will remain on
Literature and its connection with other disciplines.
We are primarily
concerned with contemporary literature (roughly the last half century).
The conference is open to
academicians and scholars (who possess at least a Master’s degree).
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
2023: [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 (1 to 6 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 |
|
|
PPT presentation
YES or NO |
|
|
Name of Delegate Official
designation (Designation/Dept/College/University) Email id Title of Abstract |
|
|
ABSTRACT [Text] 200-
250 |
|
Send your abstract to melusmelow@gmail.com
Deadline for receipt of abstracts is 15 May 2023.
Presenters need to be at least postgraduate research scholars, teachers,
or independent scholars.
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.
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. Joint entries will not be accepted for the ISM Award.
For further
inquiries please email: melusmelow@gmail.com
Our website: www.melow.in
IMPORTANT DATES
15 May 2023: Deadline for Abstracts
15 June 2023: Acceptance of abstracts to
be sent.
15 July 2023: Delegate and membership
fees to be submitted.
31 August 2023: Full papers to be
submitted.
15 September 2023:
Programme to be finalized.
ABOUT MELOW
MELOW (The Society for
the Study of the Multi-Ethnic Literatures of the World) was first set up in
1997 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 last
issue, released in February 2023, comprises a selection of papers presented at
the 22nd MELOW Conference
held at Goa in Sept 2022.
Current Office
Bearers of MELOW w.e.f. 1st April 2020
The Governing
Body:
President: Manju Jaidka, former
Prof of English, Panjab University, Chandigarh
Vice-President: Debarati Bandyopadhyay,
Prof, Visva-Bharati, Santiniketan, WB
Secretary: Manpreet Kaur
Kang, Prof, Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi
Jt. Secretary: Roshan Lal Sharma, Prof, C.U.
of Himachal Pradesh, Dharamshala
Treasurer: Aneel Kumar Raina, former
Prof of English, Panjab University, Chandigarh
Regional Representatives:
Prof
Sushila Singh (Varanasi)
Prof Sachidananda Mohanty (Orissa, India)
Prof
Dipankar Purkayastha (Silchar)
Prof
Jap Preet Bhangu (Longowal, Pb)
Prof
Sanjay Mukherjee (Gujarat)
Prof Kalpana Purohit (Rajasthan)
Dr
Neela Sarkar (Kolkata)
Dr
Meenu Gupta (Chandigarh)
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
