Call for Papers for Afterlives of
A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s
Court
51st Annual Convention of the
Northeast Modern Language Association
Boston Marriott Copley Place, in Boston,
Massachusetts, from 5-8 March 2020
Paper abstracts are due by 30
September 2019
Session organized by Michael A.
Torregrossa, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of
Britain
Writer Mark Twain and illustrator
Daniel Carter Beard’s A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (1889)
has had a long history of adaptation in popular culture, but the full scope of
its reception remains untold. There are, of course, the obvious texts, both in
print and on film, that merely retell the story. Of these, more work is needed
on the illustrative tradition. Along with retellings, there are also a small
number of works that continue Connecticut Yankee. These appear
entirely unknown to Twainians but offer a unique approach to the author’s
legacy. More importantly, Connecticut Yankee itself or its
story as mediated through one of its many retellings has also stimulated new
narratives detached from Twain and Beard’s telling that recast characters and
restage events. Also relatively unknown by scholars of the novel, these
materials can be found throughout modern popular culture, and, although
Elizabeth S. Sklar somewhat derisibly labels these as “spinoffs and ripoffs” of
the novel, they are of value (as she suggests) and perhaps more so than the
retellings because such items serve as the base for an extensive corpus of
transformations of the novel that send various protagonists, all characters
more familiar to contemporary readers and viewers than Twain’s Hank Morgan,
into the medieval past and set a common pattern for time travel stories.
In the end, this session will
offer a broad view of adaptations of the Connecticut Yankee story
to situate both retellings and the lesser known and/or hitherto unknown
continuations and recastings into a new continuum to offer a more complete
picture of the novel’s effect on popular culture and provide fresh insight into
the various ways that the producers responsible for these re-imaginings have
appropriated the story and its time-travel motif for their own purposes.
This session is a paper panel in
traditional format, which will include 3-4 participants, reading a formal paper
of 15-20 minutes (2500-3000 words) as set by the chair, followed by Q&A.
The direct link for this session
is https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18029.
Please contact the organizers at KingArthurForever2000@gmail.com
with any questions or concerns.
Abstract submissions must be made
through NeMLA’s official site. Applicants will need to login or create an
account at https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/login.
Submissions must begin with a paper title of not more than 100 characters
(including spaces) and adhering to the following: capitalize titles by MLA
formatting rules unless the title is in a language other than English; do not
use quotation marks in the session title or abstract title itself but please
use only single quotation marks around titles of short stories, poems, and
similar short works; italicize the titles of long works mentioned in the paper
title; and do not place a period at the end of the title. Submissions should
also include an academic biography (usually transferred from your NeMLA profile)
and a paper abstract of not more than 300 words; be sure to italicize or use
quotation marks around titles according to MLA guidelines.
Please be aware that NeMLA
membership is not required to submit abstracts, but it is required to present
at the convention. In addition, note that it is permissible to present on (1) a
panel (or seminar) and (2) a roundtable or a creative session, but it is not
permissible to present on a panel and a seminar (because both are paper-based),
on two panels or two roundtables (because both would be the same type). Further
information on these and other policies can be accessed at http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention/callforpapers/submit.html.
Chairs will confirm the
acceptance of abstracts before 15 October 2019. At that time, applicants must
confirm the panel on which they wish to participate. Convention
registration/membership for 2019-2020 must be paid by 1 December 2019.
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