NeMLA Sponsored Sessions Schedule

Here are the details of our sponsored sessions for next week's meeting on the Northeast Modern Language Association.

The full schedule can be accessed at http://www.buffalo.edu/nemla/convention.html.

Northeast Modern Language Association 51st Annual Convention, 5-8 March 2020

Marriott Copley Place, Boston, Massachusetts

Friday, Mar 6 Track 8, 11:45-01:00

Location: FAIRFIELD (Media Equipped)

8.10 Afterlives of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court

Sponsored by the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar)

Chair: Michael Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

American & Cultural Studies and Media Studies

"Sir Boss, His Successors, and His Surrogates: Classifying Adaptations of Connecticut Yankee" Michael Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

"‘Thou Swell’: The Power of Words (and Music) as a Connecticut Yankee goes Back to the Future" Tammy Rose, Independent Scholar

"A Secret Agent in King Arthur's Court: MacGyver Saves the 7th Century from Nuclear Proliferation" Emily Race, Sewanee: The University of the South



Saturday, Mar 7, Track 17, 03:15-04:30

Location: HARVARD (Media Equipped)

17.19 Does the Matter of Britain (Still) Matter? (Roundtable)

Sponsored by the Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa (Independent Scholar)

Chair: Christopher Berard, Providence College

Cultural Studies and Media Studies & British

"The Figure of King Arthur in the 21st Century" Christopher Berard, Providence College

"Is There a Place for the Matter of Britain in Contemporary Arthurian Narrative?" Rachael Warmington, Seton Hall University

[WITHDRAWN] "Death Redeems Us Not from Tongues: Thomas Hughes and the 16th-century Crisis of Arthurian History" Liam Thomas Daley, University of Maryland College Park

"From Round Table Tournaments to Renaissance Festivals: Arthuriana and the Hyperreal" Theresa FitzPatrick, Concordia University Saint Paul

"'And What Everybody Else Needs, Too': Seeking the Grail in The Unwritten" Emily Race, Sewanee: The University of the South

Sponsored Listservs Move to Groups.io

For immediate release.

The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain is pleased to announce the re-launching of our two discussion lists at Groups.io following the recent decision by Yahoo! to delete all content from Yahoo! Groups.

Our message archive has been saved and transferred to Groups.io, and new discussions have begun.

To sign-up follow the links below.

Michael A. Torregrossa
Founder, Listserv Moderator, and Blog Editor, Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain


The Arthurian Comics Discussion List
https://groups.io/g/arthurian-comixlist

Sponsored by The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain, the Arthurian Comics Discussion List was founded by Michael A. Torregrossa in July 2000 to promote intellectual discussion and debate on and to further interest in one of the least researched media of post-medieval Arthuriana in popular culture: Arthurian-themed comics, a form of Arthuriana in existence since at least the 1920s. The corpus, which includes thousands of examples, encompasses all forms of the comics medium, including panel cartoons, comic books, comic strips, graphic albums and novels, manga, and webcomics.


The Arthurian Popular Culture Discussion List
https://groups.io/g/arthpcdl

The Arthurian Popular Culture Discussion List was founded in October 2000 to promote informed discussion and debate about manifestations of the Arthurian legend in popular culture from the Middle Ages to the present day. The list is sibling to the Arthurian Comic Book Discussion List, but the Popular Culture List has a wider scope and will accept posts on all aspects of the Arthurian legend in popular culture (including film, television, role-playing games, fiction, toys and, of course, comic books).

CFP International Arthurian Society, North American Branch Mini-conference within the Symposium for Medieval and Renaissance Studies (1/15/2020; Saint Louis University 6/15-20/2020)

Almost missed this. Posted from the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch:

Call for Papers

International Arthurian Society, North American Branch Mini-conference within the Symposium for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Saint Louis University

https://www.smrs-slu.org/

June 15-17, 2020

We would like to invite you to submit abstracts for a mini-conference of the International Arthurian Society, North American Branch at the Eight Annual Symposium for Medieval and Renaissance Studies hosted at Saint Louis University. The symposium takes place June 15-20, 2020. The official CFP submission deadline for the conference is December 31, 2018, but you have until January 15, 2020 to submit your proposals; a perk of he having the branch secretary-treasurer serving on the Symposium Program Committee. We can submit as many sessions as we can organize within the context of 3 days of conference sessions.

Each Year, the Executive and Advisory Board of the IAS-NAB invites a scholar to give the Loomises Lecture, which afterwards is published in Arthuriana. For 2020, we have invited Dorrie Armstrong to deliver the Loomises lecture.

With this in mind, here are the sessions that we are inviting your proposals for:

I. Arthurian Women

II. Chivalric Masculinity - When Knights Fail to Live Up to The Code of Chivalry: Who Survives? Who Dies? and Why?

III. Open Topic: all submissions welcome on Arthurian topics



Please submit your abstract to both David F. Johnson (djohnson@fsu.edu) and Evelyn Meyer (evelyn.meyer@slu.edu) no later than January 15, 2020. Do NOT submit it through the symposium submission portal as your submission won’t go to us and the IAS-NAB mini-conference at the SMRS but will be considered as part of the general pool of submissions at the SMRS.



Sincerely,
Evelyn Meyer
Secretary-Treasurer, IAS-NAB

Does the Matter of Britain (Sill) Matter NeMLA Update

I am pleased to announce the slate for our round table on the relevance of the Arthurian tradition. Full details below. My thanks to the panelists for their interesting ideas.


Does the Matter of Britain (Still) Matter?
Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

The Figure of King Arthur in the 21st Century
Christopher Berard, Providence College

Is There a Place for the Matter of Britain in Contemporary Arthurian Narrative?
Rachael Warmington, Seton Hall University

Death Redeems Us Not from Tongues: Thomas Hughes and the 16th-century Crisis of Arthurian History
Liam Daley, University of Maryland College Park

From Round Table Tournaments to Renaissance Festivals: Arthuriana and the Hyperreal
Theresa FitzPatrick, Concordia University Saint Paul

'And What Everybody Else Needs, Too': Seeking the Grail in The Unwritten
Emily Race, Sewanee: The University of the South

Afterlives of Connecticut Yankee Session for NeMLA 2020

It appears that the Afterlives of Connecticut Yankee session will be running after all. 

Here are the details. I am grateful to everyone in Arthurian Studies and Twain Studies that helped make this session possible.


Afterlives of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court
Organized by Michael A. Torregrossa, Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain.

Sir Boss, His Successors, and His Surrogates: Classifying Adaptations of Connecticut Yankee
Michael A. Torregrossa, Independent Scholar

‘Thou Swell’: The Power of Words (and Music) as a Connecticut Yankee goes Back to the Future
Tammy Rose, Independent Scholar

A Secret Agent in King Arthur's Court: MacGyver Saves the 7th Century from Nuclear Proliferation
Emily Race, Sewanee: The University of the South

CFP Quests: Magical Journeys and Wayside Attractions (Spec. Issue of Coreopsis) (12/24/19)

Quests: Magical Journeys and Wayside Attractions
https://call-for-papers.sas.upenn.edu/cfp/2019/08/29/quests-magical-journeys-and-wayside-attractions

deadline for submissions:
December 24, 2019
full name / name of organization:
Coreopsis Journal Of Myth & Theatre
contact email:
coreopsisjournalofmyththeatre@gmail.com




Call for papers Spring 2020



Publication date: February 29, 2020



Query/Abstract Deadline: December 20th, 2019

Full paper due upon acceptance of abstract.



Announcements Deadline: February 1, 2020

Coreopsis Journal of Myth & Theatre

Theme:

Quests: Magical Journeys and Wayside Attractions



“The road goes ever, ever on…” JRR Tolkien.



Quests...an image that evokes enchanted woods, magical beasts, and knights with and without shining armour. The road into the unknown where a great treasure lies at the end. How many have traveled that road, whether in the waking world or in the realm of the heart? Were there pitfalls and wayside attractions?

The realm of mythopoetics and speculative fiction, popular dramas, and the ancient art of the story-song. From the ancient texts of Inanna, the wonder tales of the Mabinogion and Troyes’ Sainte Grail cycle, to Baum’s Land of Oz and Tolkien’s Hobbits, to the very modern American Gods, or McKillip’s The Forgotten Beasts of Eld the tale of the quest and journeys into the realm of magic and wonder are part and parcel of the art of storytellers.

Whether we explore the realm of story, or use the idea of a quest or journey as a metaphor, or find ourselves walking into the unknown in the waking world, questing after an idea or an object in a laboratory or in the natural world, the image of seeking and finding -- or, not finding -- is a powerful one. In the Spring 2020 issue, we will explore the idea of questing and journeys into the unknown.

Paper topics to consider are:

• The Perilous Distraction - a phrase made famous by the late Joseph Campbell in describing Gawain’s stay in Maiden Castle where all of his needs were met and he never achieved the Grail …
• The Mask and the Mirror: the spiritual journey: metaphors, pilgrimages, rituals, and holy places 
• Pen, quill and microchip: the intellectual quest
• Mythopoetics: analysis of modern retellings and original works of fantasy and speculative fiction that explore journeys and quests
• Failed journeys and the lessons learned: gifts of unknown things
• Science and discovery - Surprise! -: When you were on one quest and discovered that it was something quite different that needed to be discovered
• Exploration: Journeys across oceans, time, and beyond the Earth
• Those who walked away: what does it mean to walk away? From ideas, narratives, beliefs, relationships, workplaces, cities, and countries. What was found? What was lost? 

Send queries and abstracts to: “Spring 2020”  coreopsisjournalofmyththeatre@gmail.com

Please read the submission guidelines before sending your paper or editorial, here: http://societyforritualarts.com/coreopsis/contact-us/

Published 2X yearly, by the Society for Ritual Arts. Peer reviewed. Never for profit.


Last updated August 30, 2019

CFP Does the Matter of Britain (Still) Matter?: Reflections on the State of Arthurian Studies Today (A Roundtable) (EXTENDED DEADLINE 10/7/19; NeMLA Boston 3/5/8/2020)

Call for Papers for Does the Matter of Britain (Still) Matter?: Reflections on the State of Arthurian Studies Today (A Roundtable)

51st Annual Convention of the Northeast Modern Language Association

Boston Marriott Copley Place, in Boston, Massachusetts, from 5-8 March 2020

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Paper abstracts are due by 7 October 2019

Session organizer: Michael A. Torregrossa, The Alliance for the Promotion of Research on the Matter of Britain

The Arthurian legend is now over a millennium and a half old and continues to inspire new creative works each year. However, texts with widespread distribution and/or lasting impact are rare. Consequently, the Matter of Britain now often seems very distant from our daily lives. The purpose of this session is to explore the reasons for this separation of the stories of Arthur from the popular consciousness.

In conceiving this session, we are interested in exploring the answers to several questions. First, why has the Matter of Britain—once an important part of what J. R. R. Tolkien has termed “the cauldron of story”—now become something that is sampled by few artists with the means to promote their work to the larger segment of the global population that once devoured such stories with enthusiasm? Continuing with this idea, do these works, when noticed, not receive acclaim simply because of their creators’ failure to overcome what Norris J. Lacy has termed the “tyranny of tradition” and produce something that is both recognizable and innovative, or has the legend truly become a niche brand, a fascination to a few cognoscenti but something totally off the radar of most individuals? Similarly, when versions of the legend are produced by individuals with the means to create something that transcends the financial and distributive restrictions that hold back other works (and that might thus have the potential to shape how the current generation perceives the Arthurian story), why do they so often not succeed? Have these creators also simply failed to negotiate the tyranny of tradition, or are audiences at large just not interested in Arthur and all that he represents anymore? Lastly, if the legend no longer appeals, what is the future of Arthurian Studies (and Arthurian scholars) in the remainder of the twenty-first century? Should we entrench ourselves and hope for the best, or can we fight for our field and the glory that was Camelot?

This session is a roundtable, in which 3-10 participants give brief, informal presentations (5-10 minutes) and the session is open to conversation and debate between participants and the audience.

The direct link for this session is https://www.cfplist.com/nemla/Home/S/18038. 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.

CFP Afterlives of A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court (EXTENDED DEADLINE 10/7/19; NeMLA 3/5-8/2020)

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

DEADLINE EXTENDED: Paper abstracts are due by 7 October 2019

Session organizer: 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.

Handbook of Arthurian Romance Now in Paperback

De Gruyter has recently released the Handbook of Arthurian Romance in an affordable paperback edition. It looks like a valuable resource worthy of most bookshelves.


Handbook of Arthurian Romance: King Arthur's Court in Medieval European Literature
https://www.degruyter.com/view/product/457447

Ed. by Tether, Leah / McFadyen, Johnny
In collab. with Busby, Keith / Putter, Ad

Series:De Gruyter Reference

Publication Date:June 2017
xv, 548 pages
Language:English

Paperback
ISBN 978-3-11-065580-3
List price
€ [D] 29.95*
RRP
€ [D] 29.95 / US$ 34.99 / GBP 27.00*



Aims and Scope

The renowned and illustrious tales of King Arthur, his knights and the Round Table pervade all European vernaculars, as well as the Latin tradition. Arthurian narrative material, which had originally been transmitted in oral culture, began to be inscribed regularly in the twelfth century, developing from (pseudo-)historical beginnings in the Latin chronicles of "historians" such as Geoffrey of Monmouth into masterful literary works like the romances of Chrétien de Troyes. Evidently a big hit, Arthur found himself being swiftly translated, adapted and integrated into the literary traditions of almost every European vernacular during the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. This Handbook seeks to showcase the European character of Arthurian romance both past and present.

By working across national philological boundaries, which in the past have tended to segregate the study of Arthurian romance according to language, as well as by exploring primary texts from different vernaculars and the Latin tradition in conjunction with recent theoretical concepts and approaches, this Handbook brings together a pioneering and more complete view of the specifically European context of Arthurian romance, and promotes the more connected study of Arthurian literature across the entirety of its European context.


Contents (from WorldCat)

Introduction: King Arthur's court in medieval European literature / Leah Tether, Johnny McFadyen --
Historical context : the Middle Ages and the code of chivalry / Robert Rouse --
The International Arthurian Society and Arthurian scholarship / Samantha J. Rayner --
The evolution of the critical canon / Aisling Byrne --
Text-types and formal features / Patrick Moran --
The Arthur-figure / Matthias Meyer --
The manuscript context of Arthurian romance / Keith Busby --
Readership and audience / Bart Besamusca --
Chronology, anachronism and translatio imperii / Sif Rikhardsdottir --
Historiography : fictionality vs. factuality / Helen Fulton --
Rewriting : translation, continuation and adaptation / Jane H.M. Taylor --
Intertextuality / Marjolein Hogenbirk --
New philology/manuscript studies / Stefka G. Eriksen --
Text and image / Alison Stones --
Material studies / Andrew James Johnston --
The natural world / Christine Ferlampin-Acher --
Gender/queer studies / Carolyne Larrington --
Orality, literacy and performativity of Arthurian texts / Richard Trachsler --
Medievalism / Andrew B.R. Elliott --
Post-colonial studies / Andrew Lynch --
Heinrich von dem Türlin's Diu Crône : life at the Arthurian court / Florian Kragl --
Herr Ivan : chivalric values and negotiations of identity / Sofia Lodén --
La Tavola Ritonda : magic and the supernatural / Giulia Murgia --
Chrétien de Troyes' Lancelot, ou le Chevalier de la charrette : courtly love / Thomas Hinton --
Sir Percyvell of Galles : a quest for values / Raluca L. Radulescu --
Peredur son of Efrawg : the question of translation and/or adaptation / Lowri Morgans --
The Roman van Walewein and Moriaen : travelling through landscapes and foreign countries / Frank Brandsma --
The Iberian post-vulgate cycle : cyclicity in translation / Paloma Gracia --
Wolfram von Eschenbach's Parzival : searching for the Grail / Michael Stolz --
Chrétien de Troyes' Erec et Enide : women in Arthurian romance / Laura Chuhan Campbell --
Merlin : Christian ethics and the question of shame / Gareth Griffith --
De ortu Walwanii and Historia Meriadoci : technologies in/of romance / Siân Echard --
Jaufre : genre boundaries and ambiguity / Charmaine Lee.

CFP XXVIth Congress of the International Arthurian Society (10/31/19; Italy July 2020)

The website is now available for the XXVIth Congress of the International Arthurian Society. It can be accessed at http://iascongress2020.unict.it/.

The event is hosted by Catania University, Italy, and will be held on 19-25 July 2020.

Abstracts are due by 31 October 2019.

The selected Congress themes are:

Arthurian Alterities
Arthurian Iconographies
Retelling, resumption, repeating
Paratexts in Arthurian manuscripts
Places of Arthurian emotion
Medievalism