The Thirteenth Quadrennial International Conference on Comparative Literature
\nCall for Papers\uff0dDeadline Extension: March 24, 2023<\/p>\n
Comparative Literature in an Era of Pandemics:
\nMedicine, Health, and the Environment<\/p>\n
Organizers:
\nDepartment of English, Tamkang University
\nComparative Literature Association of the Republic of China (CLAROC)
\nDate:December 15-16, 2023
\nVenue:Tamkang University, Tamsui, Taiwan<\/p>\n
Humanity has experienced many pandemics throughout history. The Black Death in the Middle Ages resulted in the collapse of feudalism. The severe damage caused by the 1918 flu pandemic contributed to the advancement of public health, specifically the development of social medicine. The coronavirus pandemic in the 21st century has substantially affected the flow of people, money, products, and political ideas across national borders. The ongoing pandemic has left us with many questions pertaining to medicine, health, and the environment.
\nHealth is the foundation of a vital and prosperous country. According to Michel Foucault, “bio-power” refers to mechanisms of power governing all aspects of human life by European states since the 18th century. This is echoed in different contexts by Hartmut Rosa’s understanding of power and governance that “are based at least in part on resonant relationships, i.e. on the inner consent of the governed when they feel reached or touched by the powerful and are willing to respond to this with accommodation, so that an at least proto-dialogic relation is established between governing and governed.” Such power aims to effectively regulate health, customs, and reproductive practices, and to manage the population by strengthening public health institutions, guaranteeing the security of life and increasing the welfare of the people. One of the main goals of state governance is to ensure the health and safety of the population. Today, in addition to the state’s surveillance of the people (including lockdowns, nucleic acid testing, and the emphasis on vaccine coverage), people’s self-monitoring of health is not entirely for the disease-free continuation of their own lives, but sometimes an effort to avoid stigmatization of and interruption to their quotidian lives. In this latter process, the subject develops anxiety, which ironically stands as antithetical to health. A pandemic causes people to focus on the body, to be intensively concerned about their physical and mental health. The concept of health under the haze of a pandemic has never been a neutral concept. It becomes a moral imperative.
\nThe symbiosis between humans and germs has persisted since ancient times, but with modern advances of medical technology, humans have isolated germs from human civilization, resulting in the paradoxical phenomenon discussed by Steve Hinchliffe et al. inPathological Lives: It is the apparent stability of modern life that manifests a form of vulnerability. The stability of the human world is susceptible to being pushed into a pathological state in particular places and at specific times. The coronavirus pandemic is one clear example that prompts us to think about the meaning of coexistence between natural and civilized states of being.
\nFrom Giovanni Boccaccio’sThe Decameronto Jack London’sThe Scarlet Plague, from Albert Camus’sThe Plagueto Virginia Woolf’s “On Being Ill,” and from Katherine Anne Porter’s “Pale Horse, Pale Rider” to Orhan Pamuk’s recently publishedNights of Plague, writers from different eras and different parts of the world explore the affect and events of this ineluctable conjunction between humans and their pathogenic counterparts on this planet. The conference hopes to shed light on the dynamics in literature that dissect various aspects of the pandemic experience by tapping into the dialectics of medical treatment and care, health and disease, and social development and ecology.
\nPapers that present original work and include (but are not limited to) the following topics are solicited:<\/p>\n
World Literature and Planetary Health
\nUtopian Literature and the Pandemic
\nPandemic Apocalypse in Dystopias
\nPandemic Literature and Medicine
\nMedical Humanities and the Anthropocene
\nBiomedical Ethics in Literature
\nIllness Narrative and Medicine
\nRace, Imperialism, and Disease
\nMedicine and Health Care in Literary Production
\nPandemic Fear and Anxiety in Literature
\nMental Health and Normality in Literature
\nSurveillance and State of Exception in Literary Imagination
\nBio-governmentality and Human Rights in Literature
\nRepresentations of Environmental Impact of Disease in Fiction, Poetry, and Drama
\nOnline Literary Pedagogy during the Pandemic<\/p>\n
Panel proposals are welcome. The deadline for proposals isMarch 24, 2023. Notice of acceptance, together with a registration form, will be sent by the end of March. All participants from abroad whose papers have been accepted will be provided with board and lodging for the duration of the conference (if funding is available). The official language for the conference is English. Please send your proposal (350 words maximum) and short bio of 100 words to: <\/p>\n
Dr. Kai-su Wu
\nThe Thirteenth Quadrennial International Conference on Comparative Literature
\nc\/o English Department
\nTamkang University
\nTamsui, New Taipei City
\nTaiwan 25137<\/p>\n
O. C.<\/p>\n