Deadline: February 28, 2022
Harvard University Graduate Conference, April 9, 2022
*To Be Held In-Person*
Co-organizers: Joanna Burdzel, Brett Donohoe, Roy Ginsberg, Anna Ivanov, Rachael Neidinger, Harvard University
The exosphere is the most distant layer of a planet’s atmosphere that still binds objects to a body’s gravitational pull. The image of the exosphere, as a conceptual metaphor, guides our conference. Adopting this receding vantage point, paradoxically, creates a sense of proximity, as sites formerly separated by huge distances begin to appear as mere neighbors — zooming out makes distinct bodies seem all the closer. On a discursive level, approaching the study of Slavic literatures in this way seems promising, as richly informed readings of individual works or artists can often contain echoes of trends and through lines operating on a broader scale in unexpected ways. From the exosphere, however, such resonances become appreciable, and the contingency of varied, seemingly unconnected entities becomes all the more apparent. Our conference proposes to adopt this approach and see what productive pairings can be found when unlikely works find themselves in close proximity on our panels. What might one say about Olga Tokarczuk and the situation of contemporary Polish prose, for example, in discussion with another scholar talking about queer Bosnian poetry? We hope to uncover connections that can be seen from the exosphere that might be otherwise missed.
Continue reading “CFP: Views from the Exosphere – Contemporary Slavic Literatures, From Up Close and Far Away”