Category Archives: Calls for Papers

Call for Papers: “Breaking the Fourth Wall: Experimental Theatre from Six Characters to Today” – 2021 MLA Convention, Toronto

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In recognition of the 100-year anniversary of the first performance of Luigi Pirandello’s landmark 1921 play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, this guaranteed panel will consider the role that experimental theatre played during the years of the historical avant-garde and the broader implications of that experimentation across the 20th century and today.

Luigi Pirandello’s theatrical innovations were important for the modernist transition away from naturalist and realist conventions of a “fourth wall” constructed to enclose a discrete world on the stage. He engaged with numerous avant-garde figures who were active in that shift, and he influenced generations to follow. Pirandello’s attempt with Six Characters to break that fourth wall and experiment with meta- and absurdist theatre was met with incomprehension and outrage at its first run: the audience disrupted the performance in Rome with shouts of “Madhouse!” Yet, only a year later the play had its premiere on Broadway and within a few years it was met with high esteem in Europe and America, an esteem that has continued to this day. The works of Bertolt Brecht, Thornton Wilder, and Samuel Beckett would soon follow, and the norms of theatre in the West were forever changed by the mid-20th century.

We seek proposals that consider metatheatre, absurdist theatre, and other forms of experimental performance (dance, performance art, etc.) that are in conversation with the historical avant-garde figures who effectively broke down the fourth wall. In light of Six Characters centennial and its foundational place in the history of metatheatre, we are particularly interested in proposals that consider Pirandello and this seminal play’s role in opening a new space for representation between the audience and the stage. 

Abstracts of ~300 words and short bios should be sent to Julianne VanWagenen (vanwagen@umich.edu) and Michael Subialka (msubialka@ucdavis.edu) by March 20, 2020. 

This is a guaranteed panel for the 2021 MLA Convention in Toronto (January 7-10, 2021).

NeMLA 2020 Panel – Call for Papers

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Pirandello and Scientific Revolution

This panel investigates the influence that scientific advances in the modern(ist) era had on Luigi Pirandello and his contemporaries. The scientific revolutions occurring across the 19th and the 20th centuries put literature and the arts in a prolific dialogue with fields as diverse as technology, industry, architecture, and physics (among others). Discoveries and advances in this time period inspired and reshaped the work of Pirandello and his fellow intellectuals, impacting their thought and modernist writing style. We aim to shed light on the intersection of art with narratives of scientific progress as well as specific scientific advances, on the one hand, and on the role that Pirandello and his contemporaries played in defining the modernist intellectual trends of the moment, on the other.

Description:

This panel investigates the influence that scientific advances in the modern(ist) era had on Luigi Pirandello and his contemporaries, spanning scientific disciplines and fields such as technology, industry, and architecture. How did discoveries and advances in this time period inspire and reshape the work of Pirandello and his fellow intellectuals? What is the relationship between these advances and these writers’ reshaping of modernist style?

Session Chair: Lisa Sarti

Please submit your abstract (max 300 words) through the following web site URL by September 30th, 2019:

https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18215

Call for Papers: “It’s All Relative: Modernism and Science” 2020 MLA Convention, Seattle

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This guaranteed panel will consider how advances in math, science, and technology reshaped the literary imagination of writers during the long modernist period, as well as how the philosophical outlooks that were influenced by or in conversation with these advances interacted with that literary imagination. The modernist period was a time of great discovery in arenas that affected both the texture of daily lived life and also conceptions of humans’ place in the universe as well as the shape and workings of the universe itself. The first quarter of the 20th century alone witnessed monumental advances in fields as diverse as transportation, nuclear physics, and astrophysics; the Wright brothers took flight, Ernest Rutherford proved the structure of the nucleus, and Edward Hubble discovered galaxies outside of our Milky Way. Scholars are, of course, aware that such advances constitute an important part of the intellectual context for modernist writing. Our aim here is to consider whether previously unexplored connections or ideas link specific aspects of this developing outlook to modernists and/or modernism.

We thus seek proposals that consider how these advances in scientific thinking—which across the 19th and 20th centuries dialogued ever more closely with philosophy—opened new spaces in the artistic mind, allowing for innovative fantastical imagining, unprecedented metaphysical and ontological contemplation, and a redefining of traditional binaries, such as possible/impossible. Like many of his near contemporaries, Luigi Pirandello’s novels and plays appear to be the fruit of an intellect that was steeped in and colored by current scientific progress. How were writers like Pirandello influenced by science? And what can we learn by considering their work in relation to these great strides in the scientific realm?

With this notion in mind, we are interested in topics such as (but not limited to) the following:

Modernism and:

·         The micro (nuclear)

·         The macro (cosmological)

·         The impossible

·         The invisible real

·         The movement of bodies and energy

·         Conceptions of materialism

·         Intellectual history

·         Math

·         Electrical illumination

·         Flight

·         Relativity

·         New conceptions of evolution

This guaranteed session is sponsored by the Pirandello Society of America. However, we encourage submissions not only on Pirandello but on any pertinent modernist figure(s), movement(s), or text(s) relevant to the panel topics.

Abstracts of ~300 words and short bios should be sent to Julianne VanWagenen (vanwagen@umich.edu) and Michael Subialka (msubialka@ucdavis.edu) by March 13, 2019.

This is a guaranteed panel for the 2020 MLA Convention in Seattle (January 9-12, 2020), sponsored by the Pirandello Society of America.

Call for Papers – Pirandellian Transactions: Text, Context, Cultural Negotiation 2019 MLA Convention, Chicago

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Call for Papers:

Pirandellian Transactions: Text, Context, Cultural Negotiation

2019 MLA Convention, Chicago

This guaranteed panel will consider how relationships of transaction illuminate our understanding of Pirandello’s work as well as that of his contemporaries and those influenced by or in dialogue with him.

We seek proposals that consider Pirandello’s writing in relation to its audiences, its historical circumstances, and the myriad relationships that constitute the cultural negotiations bridging text and context. We also encourage proposals that use Pirandellian themes to examine such transactional relationships in other writers, or proposals that examine writers who were influenced by or responding to Pirandello as a part of their own textual transactions.

We take our notion of transaction from the MLA Presidential Theme, which describes it thus:

Textual transactions are the mutually constitutive engagements of human beings, texts, and their contexts. Transactions are more than mere interactions, in which separate entities act on one another without being changed at any essential level. In transactions, all elements are part of an organic whole and are transformed by their encounters with one another.

With this notion in mind, we are interested in topics such as (but not limited to) the following:

  • Translation, self-translation, cultural translation in Pirandello and/or Pirandellian approaches to translation
  • Political context and textual composition as a transaction in Pirandello and his contemporaries
  • Cultural negotiation in Pirandello and/or Pirandellian approaches to cultural negotiation
  • Performance, staging, and live acting as modes of transaction for Pirandello and/or Pirandellian approaches to performance, staging, acting, etc.
  • Author, character, actor/actress, audience, and cultural context as interrelated elements of Pirandellian transactions
  • Readings and misreadings of and by Pirandello
  • Examinations of Pirandellian themes (identity, performance, multiplicity, humor, etc.) and their role in text-context transactions

Abstracts of ~300 words and short bios should be sent to Jana O’Keefe Bazzoni (Jana.OKeefeBazzoni@baruch.cuny.edu) and Michael Subialka (msubialka@ucdavis.edu) by March 16, 2018. Any questions can be directed to the same addresses.

This is a guaranteed panel for the 2019 MLA Convention in Chicago (January 3-6, 2019).

Call for Papers: Global Legacies – Pirandello across Centuries and Media – New York City 16 September 2017

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The Pirandello Society of America invites contributions for its one-day conference in NYC:

“Global Legacies – Pirandello across Centuries and Media”

Saturday 16 September 2017, 8:00 am – 6:30 pm

Hunter College, CUNY, 695 Park Ave, New York City

 

Keynote Speaker: Pietro Frassica, Princeton University

 

Celebrating the 150th anniversary of Luigi Pirandello’s birth, this one-day conference sponsored by the Pirandello Society of America seeks a broad spectrum of contributions that evaluate and illuminate Pirandello’s legacies on world theatre, literature, cinema, and other media over a period of more than a hundred years. We encourage contributions that are interdisciplinary and engage with a variety of theoretical models when looking at Pirandello’s work and its multifaceted resonance.

 

Possible topics:

Pirandello and media: theatre, cinema, performance, music, painting, and beyond

Pirandello’s creative legacies: children and grandchildren of Pirandello

Pirandellian mutations, transformations, dramaturgies

World Pirandello: Pirandellian authors and works outside the Western canon

Unfinished and ever-new: Pirandello “updated” across three centuries

Pirandello and the power of experimentation

Pirandellian techniques: applications and developments

 

Abstracts of 250 words in English for papers of 20 minutes duration should be sent to psa2017conference@gmail.com by April 15, 2017.

 

English is the official language of the Conference.

For further information about The Pirandello Society of America please visit our website at: http://pirandellosociety.org/ and Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/pirandellosocietyofamerica/

 

The Pirandello Society of America is pleased to be featured among a series of international conferences being held across the globe in honor of Pirandello’s 150th anniversary: Pirandello International 2017, Pirandello in a Globalized World. From Agrigento to Rome, Johannesburg to Munich, these events demonstrate the world-spanning reach of Pirandello’s influence today. More information and the full calendar for the international conference series can be found online: http://pirandello.eu/international2017/

Call for Papers: Modern Language Association Convention, 2018, New York City

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Call for Papers: Modern Language Association Convention, 2018, New York City
Allied Organization: Pirandello Society of America

Title: Negotiating Identities: From Pirandello to Today

Description: Personal, cultural, national identity in Luigi Pirandello and 20/21st century peers; using recent theories of negotiation and identity or other approaches.

Deadline & Email contacts: Abstracts of 250 words by 15 March 2017; to:
Jana O’Keefe Bazzoni (jana.okeefebazzoni@baruch.cuny.edu) and
Michael Subialka (msubialka@ucdavis.edu).

Call for papers: Pirandello: Performativity and Role-Playing

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The Society for Pirandello Studies one-day conference

in collaboration with the Italian Department at the University of Edinburgh

Pirandello: Performativity and Role-Playing

Saturday 17 October 2015

University of Edinburgh: 50 George Square, Project room.

The annual one-day conference of the Society for Pirandello Studies aims to embrace a wide variety of methods and approaches to Pirandello’s œuvre, and to bring together theatre professionals, critics and scholars representing a range of disciplines. This year’s conference focuses on a quintessential Pirandellian theme, namely that of role-playing, within the contemporary framework of performativity theory. Particularly welcome are contributions that relate Pirandello’s texts to different media and/or genres. Abstracts of c.200 words (in English) for papers of 20 minutes’ duration should be sent to Enza De Francisci at e.francisci@ucl.ac.uk.

The deadline for abstracts is Friday 21 August 2015.

For further information about The Society for Pirandello Studies, including membership and Pirandello Studies (the annual journal), please visit our website at http://www.ucd.ie/pirsoc/ and Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/SocietyForPirandelloStudies.

Call for Papers: MLA Convention in Austin

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The Pirandello Society of America is pleased to invite your submissions for two proposed panels at the 2016 MLA Convention in Austin. We encourage interdisciplinary and comparative approaches.

“Mediated Legacies: New Theoretical Approaches to Pirandello”

We seek proposals for papers that use new perspectives and apply innovative theoretical lenses to approach the work and thought of Pirandello. Topics of particular interest include the development of Pirandellian thought across genres and media and its resonance in visual or other forms (spanning from visual arts to music and beyond). How does Pirandello’s work coincide with new theoretical approaches to the study of literature, the arts, and (material) culture? How might these new lenses produce different perspectives and unexpected insights into his work and thought?

The panel welcomes interdisciplinary, cross-genre, and comparative approaches.

Please submit abstracts of approximately 250 words by 15 March 2015 to Jana O’Keefe Bazzoni (jana.okeefebazzoni@baruch.cuny.edu) and Michael Subialka (michael.subialka@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk).

“Pirandello in the Classroom and Beyond: Innovative Pedagogy”

We welcome proposals for a seminar-style panel that seeks to combine presentations with performance and practical, workshop-style discussion (following suggestions elaborated by the MLA in the “Innovative Proposals” document, available online: http://www.mla.org/innovative_proposals).

This panel will examine how Pirandello’s works are taught and how they are communicated to new publics (in the classroom, in the theater, online, and beyond). We are particularly interested in theoretical/pedagogical innovations relating to adaptation, translation, and performance.

Interdisciplinary work, workshop proposals (for example, course syllabi for workshop discussion), performance presentations, and other innovative contributions are all welcome and encouraged.

Please submit abstracts of approximately 250 words, including a description of the type of intervention envisioned, its anticipated length, and how it would contribute to the innovative structure of the proposed panel. Deadline 15 March 2015. Email to Jana O’Keefe Bazzoni (jana.okeefebazzoni@baruch.cuny.edu) and Michael Subialka (michael.subialka@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk).

Call for Articles – PSA XXVII (2014)

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PSA, the Pirandello Society Annual journal, invites articles from multiple disciplines for volume XXVII (2014) of the publication. We welcome articles that engage Pirandello’s work and influence from perspectives including film, literature, theatre or the visual arts. We are especially interested in papers that examine political themes and motivations throughout his corpus or comparative and interdisciplinary articles that examine the European and/or global resonance of Pirandellian themes, tropes, or images in the visual arts, film, or on stage.

PSA is a leading source of English-language research on Pirandello that regularly features work by both established and emerging scholars. In publication since 1985, it is committed to fostering both specialized research on Pirandello as well as comparative and interdisciplinary approaches; likewise, the Pirandello Society of America strongly supports not only the study but also the production of Pirandello’s theatrical work. All submissions to the journal are read by the issue editor(s), and all published articles go through a process of double-blind peer review.

PSA submission guidelines:

Use the current MLA Style Manual (references in the text, minimal endnotes, Works Cited following the endnotes) for articles (15-25 MS pages) and book or performance reviews (2-3 MS pages). Please, do not use automatic formatting. Manuscripts will be peer reviewed.

Articles must be accompanied by an abstract of approximately 250-300 words and a brief bio (100 words).

Please, submit articles (MSword.doc) via email to editorpsa@gmail.com by August 15, 2014. Please provide a separate cover page giving the author’s name and contact information. Give no self-identifying information in any portion of the text.  Submit via mail attachment. Mark your subject line: PSA 27.

Call for Papers – Modern Language Association Convention in Vancouver – January 2015

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“Pirandello and Politics”

We seek papers that engage Pirandello’s work from a political lens. We are especially interested in papers that examine political themes and motivations throughout his corpus. Some topics of interest might include (but are by no means limited to): questions of history and political struggle/identity in his works (such as I vecchi e i giovani, “Colloquii coi personaggi,” etc.), Pirandello’s view of contemporary politics and society (in works like Il fu Mattia Pascal or I giganti della montagna, for example), and his relationship to the burgeoning culture industry.

Please send 250-word abstracts by 21 March 2014 to Jana O’Keefe Bazzoni (Jana.OKeefeBazzoni@baruch.cuny.edu) and Michael Subialka (michael.subialka@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk).

 

“(Re)casting: The Pirandellian Lens”

For this panel we seek comparative and interdisciplinary papers that examine the resonance of Pirandellian themes, tropes, or images in the visual arts, film, or on stage. While critical attention has often been focused on adaptations of Pirandello’s works for stage and screen, less attention has been given to the ways in which Pirandellian aspects like these are recast in the production of other figures throughout the 20th century. To encourage examinations that look at the afterlife of the Pirandellian perspective, we invite papers that consider these resonances in a European and/or global context.

Please send 250-word abstracts by 21 March 2014 to Jana O’Keefe Bazzoni (Jana.OKeefeBazzoni@baruch.cuny.edu) and Michael Subialka (michael.subialka@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk).

 

“Labyrinthine Modernisms in Pirandellian Times”

The Modernist Studies Association and the Pirandello Society of America invite you to submit paper abstracts for a proposed joint panel at the MLA Convention in Vancouver (January 2015).

We seek papers/presentations that consider the use of labyrinths and puzzling structures/forms in modernist production, focusing both on Pirandello and on his contemporaries in Europe and across the globe.

Some potential questions of interest include (but are not limited to): whether specific modernist writers develop labyrinthine structures to achieve different outcomes (from aporia and confusion to social-political subversion, etc.); how the labyrinth functions within the text (is it disruptive or a source of continuity? Does it involve the reader, the author, the characters, a meta-fictional self-reflection, etc.?); what are the methods by which such puzzling forms are constructed and deployed; how do various types of modernist labyrinths compare with one another within and across boundaries (of geography, language, time, etc.)?

We welcome comparative and interdisciplinary approaches.

Please submit 250-word abstracts by 21 March 2014 to Leonard Diepeveen (Leonard.Diepeveen@Dal.Ca) and Michael Subialka (michael.subialka@st-hughs.ox.ac.uk).