CFP: Literature and Media Theory: Mediality – Materiality – Cultural Techniques
19-21 March 2015, Göttingen
While the relation between literature and other media has been investigated in a number of critical studies, this conference aims at discussing literature as a medium in its own right. The theoretical foundations allowing such a conception of literature go back to the 1960s; however, what is still lacking in literary studies is both a detailed scrutiny of the benefits and (dis)advantages of these and examinations of the results of said advanced theories by re-applying them in readings of concrete literary texts. How can the mediality of literature be explored without reducing it to textuality? What are the benefits in using theoretical concepts such as cultural technique and mediality when interpreting a given literary text? How is the field of literary studies supposed to respond to the described theoretical circumstances? Fundamentally relying on its material and technical nature – writing, print, text, etc. – literature is also constitutively not reducible to them. We believe that the dialogue between literary and cultural studies, on the one hand, and media studies, on the other, promises to open up new perspectives and opportunities. We are particularly interested in contributions combining advanced theoretically informed thought with a historical perspective on concrete literary texts.
Please send abstracts (up to 400 words) and a short bio-bibliographical note by 15 August 2014, as well as general inquiries, to literatureandmediatheory@gmail.com.
For further details and the complete CFP, please click here.