You are cordially invited to a session sponsored by the Religion and Literature forum at the MLA 2024 Convention in Philadelphia:

#154 – Religion in Modern Spanish Memoir and Autofiction. Thursday, 4 January 2024 7:00 PM – 8:15 PM Marriott – Grand K (Level 5)

Presider:  Elizabeth Scarlett , U at Buffalo, State U of New York…[Read more]

You are cordially invited to the  first of three sessions sponsored by this forum at the MLA 2024 Convention in Philadelphia:

#154 – Religion in Modern Spanish Memoir and Autofiction

Thursday, 4 January 2024 7:00 PM – 8:15 PM

Marriott – Grand K (Level 5)
Presider:  Elizabeth Scarlett , U at Buffalo, State U of New York
Presentations
S…[Read more]

Dear forum members,

If you are interested in being considered for appointment to the executive committee (EC) for this forum, please email me by 28 December 2023. Include your CV along with a message of intent. This is a five-year commitment during which you become secretary in your third year and chair in the fourth. You must be a member of MLA…[Read more]

“20th-Century ‘Saints’ and Struggle”

If “spirituality” relates to a concern for the transcendent and a “saint” is one who has made a significant contribution to a spiritual tradition, this panel focuses on 20th-century saints whose spirituality intersected significantly with social and political struggle. Abstracts demonstrating familiarity…[Read more]

If you are at the Convention in San Francisco, please consider attending the Religion and Literature Forum Session 377 on Friday, 6 January 2023, 5:15 PM – 6:30 PM.

“Making Sacred, Making Holy: The Canonization of People and Texts” in the Marriott Marquis – Sierra Suite H (Level 5)
Presider
Jason Lewallen, U of Dallas
Presentations (3)
• D…[Read more]

How are various new media forms (e.g. apps, memes, gaming avatars, Webcast rites) creating performative representations of religion?  200-word proposals by March 15.  Manisha Basu, U of Illinois, Urbana (mbasu@illinois.edu ) Adrienne Brown, U of Chicago (adrienneb@uchicago.edu ).

More information: How have visual digital forms supplemented r…[Read more]

How do cleric-sleuths or other religious detective figures (e.g., Cadfael, Granchester, Father Brown, etc.)  navigate/challenge religion alongside police or state-sponsored will-to-knowledge? 200-word proposal to mbasu@illinois.edu by March 10.

More information: From G.K. Chesterton’s ‘Father Brown’ to Ellis Peters’ Brother Cadfael, from Harry…[Read more]

Memorialization, “entering the canon,” and the influence of politics, race, class, or gender. Who decides on the people, texts, places, dates, etc. selected to be commemorated, studied, and/or enshrined? Theorists such as Lonergan, Bourdieu, Girard, and Agamben have explored “sacralization” as a process of making holy or sacred that can inv…[Read more]