'DISCORDANT HARMONIES: Ecocriticism in the 21st century'
ASLE UK BIENNIAL CONFERENCE 2006
8th - 10th September 2006
University of Lincoln, England, U.K.
The perception that we are living at a time of deepening ecological
crisis is now urgent and pervasive. What do literature and culture have
to say at this moment in the history of human relationships with our
environment?
The Association for the Study of Literature and the Environment (ASLE
UK) invites proposals for its fourth biennial conference to be held at
the University of Lincoln, 8th-10th September 2006. We are interested
in papers exploring any aspect of literary and other cultural treatments
of the environment. How are writers of all kinds, filmmakers, literary
theorists and readers responding to and representing the threat of
climate change and other environmental issues? What are the particular
challenges of teaching the humanities with a consciousness of the
environment?
The ideal relationship between humans and the natural world has been
imagined in terms of 'harmony' and 'balance' for at least three
centuries. Ecocriticism and environmentalism have been shaped by such
metaphors. And yet, in the science of ecology itself, metaphors of flux
and change are challenging the 'balance of nature'. What are the
consequences for ecocriticism and environmentalism, and for the ways in
which we all imagine nature?
Contributions are invited from writers and critics in humanities
disciplines on any topic that engages with the relationship of humankind
to its environment, including, but not limited to, the following:
* Green re-readings of literature and other media
* Problems in ecocritical theory
* Green pedagogies/teaching environmental humanities
* Varieties of ecocriticism: nation, class, gender and race
* Humans and animals
* Ecocritical tropes: pastoral, wilderness & apocalypse
* Ecocriticism and activism
* Globalisation and contemporary politics
* Creative writing and other creative work
ASLE-UK was founded in 1998 and is an affiliate of ASLE (US), the
leading international organization of ecologically informed literature
and criticism, which now boasts over 1000 members worldwide. An English
Subject Centre miniproject on Education for Sustainable Development
running at Bath Spa University will be sponsoring a roundtable on ESD
pedagogy. Contributors to the roundtable will be eligible for some
financial support.
We welcome interdisciplinary approaches and thematically related
non-fiction, fiction and poetry. Papers may be based in any humanities
discipline such as literature, film and TV studies, new media, visual
culture, cultural studies, journalism, history, linguistics, theology,
philosophy, and may take the form of papers (20 minutes presentation
time), panels, round tables, workshops or oral performances.
Plenary speakers include Dana Phillips, Ursula Heise and John Simons:
other speakers to be confirmed.
Please email proposals (200 words max) for papers etc to
conferences@lincoln.ac.uk or by post to ASLE conference, Faculty of
Media & Humanities, University of Lincoln, Brayford Pool, Lincoln. LN 6
7TS. England U.K.
For enquiries or information please email rhildyard@lincoln.ac.uk or
write to Dr Rupert Hildyard at the above address.