Call for Papers, 2007
American Religion and Literature Society
At the 18th Annual American Literature Association Conference
Boston, MA, May 24-27, 2007
Americanizing Faith, Scripture, and Iconography
ARLS will sponsor two sessions at ALA, Catholicism and the American Imagination and Reconfigurations of the Supernatural:
1. Roman Catholicism has been an inescapable presence in America since the inception of the nation, yet for a large part of American history, that presence has been seen as marginal, even problematic. We seek papers addressing any aspect of Catholicism and its representations in American literature, whether by Catholic, non-Catholic, or ex-Catholic authors. Topics might include, but are not limited to:
Catholicism represented as exotic, foreign, or menacing
Traces of Catholicism in secular literature
Representations, translations, or revisions of Catholic doctrine in literature
Catholic women authors
Catholicism as a mark of ethnicity or marginalization
Disputes and encounters between Catholicism and other religious and philosophical traditions in American literature.
2. American authors, like authors from other cultures before them, integrate spiritual and supernatural phenomena into their literary representations. At times there are conflicts between human agency and such phenomena, at other times cooperation. We seek papers exploring the effects of authorial re-renderings of religious texts and icons and/or the integration of supernatural forces or images in a single work or a series. Religious texts and icons are not limited to Christianity. Topics might include, but are not limited to:
Presentations of scripture, art, iconography
Fictive re-tellings of religious stories, modernized or historically set
Translations of scripture, fictive re-renderings of scriptural stories
Appearances of mythological, supernatural, or fantasy elements
Rituals (syncretic or affiliated with a single religion), animism, magic.
Founded in 1997, the American Religion and Literature Society (ARLS) is a member society with the American Literature Association. ARLS explores the mutual influence of religion and literature in American culture. We welcome a variety of scholarly approaches and methodologies that will place the traditional religion and literature canons in conversation with new texts and perspectives. Literary artifacts may include print texts such as novels, short stories, poetry, and non-fiction prose from any period of American history.
Please send a 500-word abstract and contact information to: srushingadams@verizon.net by December 15. Notification of acceptance will be sent by January 15. Address questions to Catherine Rogers at rogersc@savstate.edu or Susan Rushing Adams at srushingadams@verizon.net. Those presenting papers are required to be current members of ARLS.
ARLS also accepts short articles, book reviews, and poetry for its scholarly newsletter; society membership encouraged. Submit materials to Deshae Lott at Deshae.Lott@lsus.edu.
Membership: Kathleen Smith, ksmith@lsus.edu
ARLS Website: www.arlshome.org
Conference details: www.americanliterature.org
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