CfP:”Representations of Textual and Contextual Boundaries in Academic Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Film” in Kaunas, Lithuania 27-28 April, 2017

 

Session organized within the framework of the

“Texts and Contexts: The Phenomenon of Boundaries” conference

Vilnius University Kaunas, Faculty of Humanities

This panel aims to explore the representations of different boundaries at work in academic fiction, non-fiction and film, be they referring to genre and its textual fabric, or the reality and different contexts these narratives depict.

Submissions can relate, but are not limited to, the following topics:

• Textual vs. material reality in academic narratives,
• Student-teacher boundaries and off-limits behaviors in academic narratives,
• Divisions in the academe,
• No limits – academic utopias and dystopias,
• Breaking the boundary of realism – sci-fi academic narratives,
• Limits of empathy and identification – academics reading and writing academic novels,
• Frontiers and trailblazers in the academe,
• Probing the limits of truth, or facts and fiction in academic narratives and life writing – autofiction, roman à  clef etc.,
• Academic metafiction and breaking down of the fourth wall – writers writing about writers and writing,
• Limitless navel-gazing? Self-reflexivity in academic narratives, or academics writing about academe and academics
• Academic novel – genre boundaries and margins

Please send a short abstract (no more than 200 words) for a 20-minute paper, and a bio note by 6 February, 2017 to the session organizer Marta Lysik at marta.lysik@uwr.edu.pl.

CfP: “The Concepts of Home in the Context of Academe and Academic Fiction,” Kyiv, Ukraine, 17-18 March 2016

Call for Papers

“The Concepts of Home in the Context of Academe and Academic Fiction”

Kyiv, 17-18 March 2016

Panel

organised within the framework of the

International Conference in Literary Studies “Poetics of Home/House”

Kyiv National Linguistic University

 

In which ways does the academia warrant the status of a “second home” for its members? Do the groves of academe function as a safe haven, a sanctuary of classrooms and libraries, a harbor for liberal education, cultural exchange, tradition, and free thought? Can the academia constitute a private microcosm for an expat scholar, conference hopper, or a foreign student? And if it can, as a multicultural space providing a sense of home for representatives of diasporic communities, can it foster dialogue and reduce conflict between societies and countries?

We are looking for explorations of the academia-as-a-home in the short and the long term, in fiction old and new, ranging from Vladimir Nabokov’s Pnin to Michel Houellebecq’s Submission.

We invite papers treating these, and related themes, in all genres and sub-genres referred to as academic fiction by British, American, and international writers.

Possible topics (the list is suggestive not exhaustive):

• The university as a private universe in academic fiction,
• Intercultural communication in academic fiction,
• Multiculturalism in academic fiction,
• Expat scholars, conference hoppers, and foreign students,
• Exchange and staff mobility programs (Erasmus+, ISEP, Fulbright etc.),
• University as shelter,
• At home in the world: cosmopolitanism in academic novels,
• Surrogate homes abroad: music, food, and literature in academic fiction,
• Unwilling dislocations and homesickness in academic fiction,
• Speaking in tongues: language in and of academic fiction,
• From home to college: university as a rite of passage,
• The concept of home in academic life writing.

Please send a short abstract (no more than 200 words) and bio by 15 January, 2016 to Marta Lysik at marta.lysik@uwr.edu.pl.

The language of the panel is English.