From Suicide to Sublimation: Boston Poets 1950-2000

40th Anniversary Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
Feb. 26-March 1, 2009
Hyatt Regency - Boston, Massachusetts

As homes to the publishing industry and world class Universities, Boston and Cambridge have a long-standing history as being at the center of American letters. From Emerson to the language poets, perhaps no other American city can lay the same claims of both upholding the traditions of canonical works while simultaneously pushing the envelope in terms of the creation of a new poetics. The purpose of this panel is to address critical issues surrounding the poets and roles of poetics in Boston from Confessionalism through Neo-Formalism, Language Poetry and the Dark Room Collective.

Discussions surrounding the academy, identity, gender, race, psychology, critical re-evaluations, the canon, craft, aesthetics and ideology in terms of Boston poets including, but not limited to Robert Lowell, Richard Wilbur, Adrienne Rich, Sylvia Plath, Jonathan Weiners, Robert Pinsky, Jorie Graham, Thomas Sayers Ellis, Sharan Strange, Natasha Trethewey, and Katia Kapovich will be considered. Participants are encouraged to address a variety of poets or poets within the context of one of the schools or movements.

What is the impact of place and academia on the divergent poetics of these Boston poets? In what way does the development of poetry and poetics in Boston during this time period echo, prefigure or coincide with larger aesthetic and critical movements? In what ways is the canon upheld or defied by these poets? What are the peripheral cultural issues that these poets are a part of or writing in response to? What types of texts are these poets reconfiguring in the movement away from Confessionalism?

Please send abstracts of 250-500 words to:

Christopher Bock
cbock@lesley.edu

Deadline: September 15, 2008

Please include with your abstract:

Name and Affiliation
Email address
Postal address
Telephone number
A/V requirements (if any; $10 handling fee)

The complete Call for Papers for the 2009 Convention will be posted in June: www.nemla.org.
Interested participants may submit abstracts to more than one NeMLA panel; however panelists can only present one paper. Convention participants may present a paper at a panel or seminar and also present at a creative session or participate in a roundtable.