CFP NeMLA 2017: "Queer and Now": Queerness in the Mainstream

Daniella Gati Announcement
Location
Maryland, United States
Subject Fields
Cultural History / Studies, Literature, Popular Culture Studies, Sexuality Studies, Women's & Gender History / Studies

This is a CFP for the 48th Annual Convention of NeMLA to be held March 23-26, 2017, in Baltimore, Maryland.

On or about June 26, 2015, human character changed. As late as 1991, Eve Sedgwick observed that being queer at that time still meant being someone whose life did not matter and whose very survival was highly uncertain (“Queer and Now”). Yet, our contemporary “now” is a moment which has seen same sex marriage declared a federal right; openly queer persons appear as comedians, TV reporters and characters on shows, in films and recently on the musical stage. No longer “apparitional” in Terry Castle’s well-known sense, queers of the current moment might not be confined to haunting the margins of the social imaginary.

This shift poses new challenges for critical inquiry. What happens when a subculture is integrated into the mainstream, and how can we theorize the uneven and particularized process of mainstreaming? How do cultural practices that drew their existence from their struggle for survival in the margins change when awarded the status of cultural “normalcy”? How do representations of traditionally non-conforming lives and identities navigate their unexpected acceptance into the category of the usual? How can queer politics, which has always drawn on what Sedgwick calls the “vitality of [its] demands,” maintain its political urgency even as mainstreaming seemingly resolves some, but not all, of those demands? Finally, if, as Lee Edelman’s influential argument goes, the radicality of queerness lies in its rejection of futurity, then what happens to the radical potential of queerness in an age where queer lives find increasing places in the sites of cultural production and reproduction—places that hold a promise both for the present and into the future? How should queer theory respond to such changing parameters in queer life and queer representation?

This panel aims to explore the transformations in queer representation and queer experience arising from the process of mainstreaming, and to theorize the process’s social, political, and cultural consequences. Intended as a forum for open-ended discussion, the seminar seeks to examine literature, popular culture, the arts and broader society. The panel is envisioned as a seminar, allowing for a multiplicity of perspectives with ample discussion. 

 

Thank you in advance for submitting your paper to this session! This is a seminar, meaning that papers will be circulated prior to the convention. Abstracts (300 words for a 10 minute presentation) may be submitted until September 30th through NEMLA’s online system (https://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/submit.html ). Decision e-mails will be sent by October 15th. NEMLA asks that accepted and confirmed panelists pay their membership/registration fees by by December 1, 2016 in order to present at the 2017 convention.

Contact Information

Daniella Gati, Brandeis University

Please direct questions to dgati@brandeis.edu, and submit abstracts to NeMLA's online application system in the URL provided.

Contact Email
dgati@brandeis.edu