The American Comparative Literature Association will host a meeting April 15 - 18 in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Please read the following Call for Papers below or online. Please note that the deadline for abstracts is 10-8-03.

Displacing desire - globally

Journeys of desire exist throughout literature - Gilgamesh went on a vain search for Immortality; Odysseus sought his own homecoming; Basho recounted moments on the narrow road to the deep north. While these three examples differ in their conceptions of time and immediacy, they portray what Freud termed the death drive, a repetitious cycling of acts in a search for the final return.

It is true that Eastern modes of thinking, such as Buddhism and Hinduism, affirm this cycle as the means of enlightenment. But the journey of desire's metonymic displacement continues nonetheless to the point of extinction.

This panel is looking for explanations of 'desire' as it pertains to the self in literary texts, the self in space, time, and geography, or the self in theory. This panel is particularly interested in abstracts (with either an Eastern or Western focus) that pertain to notions of desire as displacement whether physical, spiritual, emotional, sexual, literary, psychological, or philosophical.

Please send 250 word abstracts by 10-8-03 to the email or postal address below.