Date: Friday 11th May (starting late afternoon) - Saturday 12th May (finishing early evening), 2001.
An interdisciplinary conference at Keele University, hosted by the School of American Studies.
Cultural memory has attracted increasing and varied academic attention across disciplines in recent years. The cultural attempts to remember events that seem to defy representation or comprehension have been a matter of particular scrutiny. In this light, memory studies has raised the following questions. In what ways is mourning (or melancholia) a response to memories that cannot be captured or explained or "worked through"? In what ways is mourning a part of remembering? How does the representation of memory function as mourning? In what ways is the representation of memory the residue of what cannot be mourned or what cannot even be remembered? While hoping to maintain the diversity of memories studied and the varied approach to them, this conference will seek to provide a focus for interdisciplinary memory studies in terms of mourning on a North American cultural scene, the significance of what is mourned there and how it is mourned. From the inception of mourning as part of the cultural fabric of the nation in the face of its foundational, genocidal events, to the current obsession with memory in a supposedly amnesiac culture, we believe this American focus will suggest a rich resource for conference papers.
Suggested topics:
Deadline for abstracts (of no more than 300 words): 31st January, 2001.
(Conference papers should be no more than 20 minutes.)
Please send abstracts and requests for further information to:
Richard Crownshaw and Monica Pearl, School of American Studies,
Keele University, Keele, Staffs ST5 5BG, UK.
Tel. (Monica) 01782 583018; Tel. (Richard) 01782 583019
Email (Monica) m.pearl@ams.keele.ac.uk
Email (Richard) r.s.crownshaw@ams.keele.ac.uk