Literary Aesthetics and Theory in Asian American Writing (12/15/02 & 5/1/03; collection)

Call for Papers: Literary Aesthetics and Theory in Asian American Writing (12/15/02; 05/01/03; collection)

This collection of essays addresses the place of literary aesthetics and literary theory in Asian American writing and criticism. The volume contends that in order to fully participate in the larger landscape and critical discourse of American literature, Asian American literary criticism must move beyond and across its current dominant negotiation with cultural studies and sociological approaches to literature to deploy questions of writerly performance and authorial interventions in American literary traditions and development. While keeping historical and materialist concerns within critical sight, analysis of Asian American literature must engage issues of aesthetics, genre, and form, and formulate/utilize theories that illustrate how Asian American literary works contribute to contemporary discussions of aesthetics and representation. The essays should address, as George Levin suggests elsewhere, the recuperation of "the distinctive value of literature without losing crucial insights provided by ideological criticism and contemporary theory."

What is the place of literary aesthetics in Asian American narrative or poetic discourse? What role does the "literary" play in our reading and appreciation of the nuances of Asian American authorial production? These concerns can be widely interpreted to formulate essays that address one or more of the following, and support their theses with actual engagements with a literary text or texts: How does Asian American writing and criticism contribute to the larger discourse of literary aesthetics and to the history of the aesthetic? How does Asian American literary criticism negotiate the relationship between literary theory and cultural studies, or between literary aesthetics and ideology? Has the intersection between these perspectives been a valid and useful one? What meta-critical approaches to current Asian American criticism can be developed? How does Asian American literature partake of or contribute to current theoretical innovations? How do genre studies, narrative poetics, or linguistic approaches help read Asian American texts? Does Asian American writing generate/invite renewed approaches to issues of representation and aesthetics? What links does Asian American literature demonstrate, on a literary and aesthetic level, with other ethnic American literatures?

500-word abstracts, accompanied by a short vita, are due on December 15th, 2002. Final papers (5000-6000 pages, MLA Style), are due on May 1st, 2003.

Please address inquiries and send abstracts to the editors of the volume: Sue-Im Lee, English Department, Temple University, Anderson Hall, 10th Floor (022-29), 1114 W. Berks St., Philadelphia, PA 19122-6090, USA, email: leesi@temple.edu and Rocio G. Davis, Modern Languages Department, University of Navarre, Pamplona 31080, Spain. email: rgdavis@unav.es.