Shame and the Act of Writing
Friday 19th September, University of Warwick
Abstract deadline: 23rd June 2014
Confirmed Speakers:
Geoffrey Gilbert (Comparative Literature and English, The American University of Paris)
Denise Riley (School of Literature, Drama, and Creative Writing, University of East Anglia)
Charles Turner (Sociology, University of Warwick)
This one day symposium brings together scholars and writers from across the disciplines to reflect on the place of shame in practices of writing. Contributions are invited in the form of twenty minute papers. Coordinates for consideration may include:
- the place of shame in the ‘affective turn’ within the Humanities
- shame and the animal who writes
- the cultural configurations of shame and writing around questions of class, gender, sexuality, and ethnicity
- the translation of shame across linguistic and cultural borders
- shame in history writing and anthropology
- shame and new media practices, especially the negotiation of the private/public spheres
- the shame of reading forbidden texts
- shame and plagiarism (or the writing of borrowed words)
- the writer’s shameful practices (e.g. writer’s block; interminable editing and re-drafting; the abandonment or destruction of writing; and the anxieties of ‘confessionalism’ or ‘impostureship’).
Abstracts of max 200 words should be addressed to Barry Sheils and Julie Walsh at this email address by June 23rd 2014.Further details and background information about the project can be found here.