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Call for Papers: African American Modernism (MLA ’04)
Special Session Panel
Modern Language Association
Philadelphia, PA
December 27-30, 2004
Deadline: March 5, 2004
“Modernism” is often a nebulous term, and “black modernism” can be equally indistinct. It is recognizable in the writings of diverse African American authors, yet definitions are elusive, descriptions enigmatic. This MLA special session panel seeks papers on the sometimes ambiguous field. Is African American modernism a style, a study, an approach? What marks black modernism from other genres of black literature and how is it aesthetically distinct from American or British modernism?
Papers can address: specific writers or novels in the black modernist tradition (Ex: Cane, Maud Martha; Nella Larsen, Gwendolyn Brooks, Ralph Ellison); the aesthetic concerns of black modernism; attempts at definitions; photography, art, music (jazz, the blues); the relationships between black and white modernists; new approaches to studying/teaching black modernism.
MLA ’04 will be held in Philadelphia, PA; Monday - Thursday, December 27-30. All participants should be MLA members by April 7, 2004. Send brief abstract, brief CV to Miriam Thaggert via email by Friday, March 5, 2004. No attachments please.
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