The American Comparative Literature Association's 2020 Annual Meeting
The American Comparative Literature Association’s 2020 Annual Meeting will take place at the Sheraton Grand Hotel in Chicago, March 19th-22nd, 2020.
The ACLA’s annual conferences have a distinctive structure in which most papers are grouped into twelve-person seminars that meet two hours per day for three days of the conference to foster extended discussion. Some eight-person (or smaller) seminars meet just the first two days of the conference. This structure allows each participant to be a full member of one seminar, and to sample other seminars during the remaining time blocks. Depending on space availability, we may also consider accepting a limited number of one-day seminars, especially if they are innovative either in presentation format or in terms of theme. The conference also includes plenary sessions, workshops and roundtable discussions, and other events.
Please select a seminar for which you would like to propose a paper. Current ACLA guidelines specify that each ACLA member may submit only ONE PAPER for consideration. Abstracts must be received by Monday, September 23, 2019 at 9 a.m. EST.17
Emergent Genres and Forms: Israel, Palestine, and the Middle East after the Second Intifada
Organizer: Isabelle Hesse Contact the Seminar Organizers
Rebecca L. Stein and Ted Swedenburg have argued that the Second Palestinian Intifada has changed the ways in which Israel and Palestine have been represented and circulated in popular culture from the region but also internationally (2005: 13-14). Indeed, Palestine and Israel are not only the subject of work produced in the Middle East but also increasingly feature in cultural products from outside the region. For example, there has been a surge in graphic novels depicting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but also a rise in children’s literature and young adult fiction as well as memoirs, documentaries, and feature films.
This seminar examines the types of genres and forms that have emerged after the Second Intifada to depict and engage with Israel, Palestine, but also the Middle East more widely. It traces how aesthetic and formal strategies are used to represent this geopolitical context to regional and international audiences since the early 2000s. It asks how cultural texts use and challenge narrative and formal conventions in order to offer alternatives to … READ MORE