Scheduled to take place on 26-27 March 2021, this online symposium aims to bring together scholars from all around the world in order to open up a forum on the multiple ways in which pandemic has been imagined through the creative layers of literature.
Organizing Committee Academic Advisory Board Keynote Speakers
Call for Papers:
Abstract proposals for 20-minute paper presentations are invited for a two-day virtual symposium hosted by Ataturk University in Erzurum, Turkey. This international symposium on pandemic and its representations in literature will be held on 26-27 March 2021.
The all-pervading pandemic Covid-19 has hit humanity in all its deadliness and led to an overall chaos having probable signs of future anarchy. Causing mass deaths and putting lives in danger, it has inevitably reminded us of the memories and accounts of past pandemics. Although historical documents and statistical data help us learn about births and growths of pandemics, literature intends to provide us with a humanistic perspective on life after a pandemic and includes accounts of pandemics all reflecting the human condition at such times of deep crises. Albert Camus’ The Plague, Defoe’s A Journal of the Plague Year, Ahmed Ali’s Twilight in Delhi, Jack London’s The Scarlet Plague, Edgar Alan Poe’s The Mask of the Red Death and Antonin Artaud’s essay “Theatre and the Plague” are some of the many texts that tackle the impact of pandemics on societies as well as unearthing the relation between pandemics and cultural products.
International Symposium on Representations of Pandemic in Literature seeks to illustrate and explore the theme of pandemics as it has been handled in literary works of all kinds. It aims to focus on the problematic relation between pandemics and individuals and societies. The topics that could be explored in the symposium include but are not limited to:
| Pandemic as apocalypse | Pandemic and loss of human values/moral decline |
| Pandemic and politics | Pandemic and gender |
| Pandemic and disability studies | Pandemic and medical humanities |
| Pandemic and psychology/human behaviour | Pandemic and culture |
| Pandemic and ecology | Pandemic and religion |
| Pandemic and crime | Pandemic and existential philosophy |
Abstracts of 200-300 words and a short bio (100-150 words) in Word format should be sent to pandemicconf2021@gmail.com with subject title ‘Representations of Pandemic in Literature’ by 15 January 2021 for consideration by the symposium committee. Decisions will be announced by 25 January 2021.
All abstracts will be published in symposium proceedings, which will be digitally sent to the presenters following the symposium.
Registration:
After you have received the acceptance letter, please finalise your registration on the following link:
Please click here for registration form.
Your presentation will not be included in the symposium programme without full registration.
Registration Deadline: 26 February 2021 (For all)
Programme
The Symposium Programme will be published prior to the event.
Contact
For more information, please contact us at email to pandemicconf2021@gmail.com
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