CFP: DFW Panels—Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association

Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association

“David Foster Wallace”

Call for Proposals

November 8–10, 2018
Lord Baltimore Hotel, Baltimore, MD

The American Studies Area of the Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association is seeking submissions of an interdisciplinary nature, focusing on the work of American author, David Foster Wallace (1962-2008). Wallace’s writing is situated at the intersections of literature, philosophy, television, cinema, popular culture, postmodernism, and social criticism. The author of the 1079-page masterpiece, Infinite Jest, Wallace explores the human experience through the ethos of the American dream, exposing and challenging its illusory seductions and their concomitant tendencies toward addiction and self-destruction, with a rare mixture of fearlessness and insight. His work thus continues to provide invaluable provocation on the questions of who we are, and who we can be.

Suggested topics/questions include, but are not limited to, the following:

• What insights does Wallace’s work offer into the nature of addiction and recovery?
• What is the role of masks in Wallace’s work?
• In what ways does Wallace’s writing challenge or reinforce patriarchy?
• Infinite Jest: A novel of affirmation or despair?
• What purpose does religious language serve in Wallace’s writing?
• How, if at all, does ‘E Unibus Pluram’ apply in the age of smartphones?
• In what ways does Wallace’s work challenge/intersect with other American authors or philosophers?

Submission Details: Proposals of no more than 300 words must be submitted through the conference website. You will need to create a MAPACA web account (instructions can be found at the website).

Hard Deadline: Proposals must be submitted no later than Thursday, June 28^th, 2018.

For more information, consult the website: MAPACA.net.

For details regarding submissions and creating a MAPACA account, consult the following: https://mapaca.net/help/conference/submitting-abstracts-conference.

With questions, contact Meredith Guthrie: guthrie@pitt.edu.