CfP: MMLA Narratives of Illness (abstracts due April 15)


Midwest Modern Languages Association, Kansas City, Nov. 15-18, 2018 

Special session call for papers "Awash in Significance": Narratives of Illness 

 This panel considers ways that narratives of consumption/tuberculosis and other illnesses “awash in significance” (Susan Sontag, Illness as Metaphor) engage with other aspects of culture and identity. How do issues of race, ethnicity, gender, sexuality, and disability figure in representations of illness? What role do literary and artistic representations play in changing definitions of pathology? What do images of illness reveal about concepts of modernity, technology, urban space, and consumerism? How do cultural narratives of illness relate to the construction of spaces for regulating health, or to experiences of travel and migration? What links exist between representations of illness and sociocultural roles of writers and readers? How do audiences consume images of illness? Papers may address cultural texts in any language or time period; the panel will be conducted in English. Please send a 250-word abstract to Laura Kanost at lakanost@ksu.edu by April 15. Contact Info: Laura Kanost, Associate Professor of Spanish, Kansas State University