Medieval History
40th Anniversary Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
Feb. 26-March 1, 2009
Boston, Massachusetts
Session: ?Rescue Me Not: Backward Premodern, Queer Negativities?
In her recent book, Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer
History, Heather Love reacts against the need of one dominant strand of
queer studies ?to turn the difficulties of gay, lesbian, and transgender
history to good political use in the present? (104). Love contends that the
faith in the power of Foucauldian reverse discourse, best exemplified in the
ideology of gay pride that transforms sexual shame into social affirmation,
has resulted in a critical blind spot; too many critics have promised ?to
rescue the past when in fact they dream of being rescued themselves? (33).
Resisting the idealization of cross-historical intimacies, Love postulates a
queer critical practice rooted in a ?backward future? that both insists on a
rigorous embrace of the past and cleaves to negative affects that seem
especially ?bad? for political agency.
This session takes up the challenge of how far Love?s historiographic
practice of backward feeling may be extended beyond High Modernism to the
?premodern? past. How do premodern subjects construct their negative
affectivity, backwardness, and/or futurity? What are the forms of their
resistance to (post)modern rescues? And how does one engage with premodern
subjects, both real and fictive, who have refused to behave themselves as
redeemable (queer) subjects for (queer) critics? 300-word abstracts by 15
Sept; Wan-Chuan Kao ([email protected]).
Please include with your abstract:
Name and Affiliation,
Email address
Postal address
Telephone number
- A Really Nice Dream
Opening of the Roman de la Rose, MS Douce 195, late 15th c.I don't know if it's my impinging decrepitude or just too much of everything but I have been tired to the point of no longer working at night for about three weeks. Where usually...
- Randy Schiff Reviews: Pugh, Queer Chivalry
See Randy P. Schiff's recent review of: Tison Pugh, Queer Chivalry: Medievalism and the Myth of White Masculinity in Southern Literature. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2013. As the massive criticism of Confederate flags that followed...
- Call For Papers: ?interiority In Early Cultures?
CALL FOR PAPERS: ?INTERIORITY IN EARLY CULTURES? The Group for the Study of Early Cultures at the University of California, Irvine invites submissions for its Third Annual Graduate Student Conference: INTERIORITY IN EARLY CULTURES Friday & Saturday, January...
- *iconoclasm: The Breaking And Making Of Images
*Iconoclasm: The Breaking and Making of Images University of Toronto, March 17?19, 2011 Keynote Address by Carol Mavor (Manchester) (others to be confirmed)* The 22nd annual conference of the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto...
- Dante Meets Mtv: Studying Medieval Literature In A Post-medieval Context
Dante meets MTV: Studying Medieval Literature in a Post-Medieval Context 41st Anniversary Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) April 7-11, 2010 Montreal, Quebec - Hilton Bonaventure This roundtable aims to create a discussion about...
Medieval History
NE MLA CFP
40th Anniversary Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA)
Feb. 26-March 1, 2009
Boston, Massachusetts
Session: ?Rescue Me Not: Backward Premodern, Queer Negativities?
In her recent book, Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer
History, Heather Love reacts against the need of one dominant strand of
queer studies ?to turn the difficulties of gay, lesbian, and transgender
history to good political use in the present? (104). Love contends that the
faith in the power of Foucauldian reverse discourse, best exemplified in the
ideology of gay pride that transforms sexual shame into social affirmation,
has resulted in a critical blind spot; too many critics have promised ?to
rescue the past when in fact they dream of being rescued themselves? (33).
Resisting the idealization of cross-historical intimacies, Love postulates a
queer critical practice rooted in a ?backward future? that both insists on a
rigorous embrace of the past and cleaves to negative affects that seem
especially ?bad? for political agency.
This session takes up the challenge of how far Love?s historiographic
practice of backward feeling may be extended beyond High Modernism to the
?premodern? past. How do premodern subjects construct their negative
affectivity, backwardness, and/or futurity? What are the forms of their
resistance to (post)modern rescues? And how does one engage with premodern
subjects, both real and fictive, who have refused to behave themselves as
redeemable (queer) subjects for (queer) critics? 300-word abstracts by 15
Sept; Wan-Chuan Kao ([email protected]).
Please include with your abstract:
Name and Affiliation,
Email address
Postal address
Telephone number
- A Really Nice Dream
Opening of the Roman de la Rose, MS Douce 195, late 15th c.I don't know if it's my impinging decrepitude or just too much of everything but I have been tired to the point of no longer working at night for about three weeks. Where usually...
- Randy Schiff Reviews: Pugh, Queer Chivalry
See Randy P. Schiff's recent review of: Tison Pugh, Queer Chivalry: Medievalism and the Myth of White Masculinity in Southern Literature. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2013. As the massive criticism of Confederate flags that followed...
- Call For Papers: ?interiority In Early Cultures?
CALL FOR PAPERS: ?INTERIORITY IN EARLY CULTURES? The Group for the Study of Early Cultures at the University of California, Irvine invites submissions for its Third Annual Graduate Student Conference: INTERIORITY IN EARLY CULTURES Friday & Saturday, January...
- *iconoclasm: The Breaking And Making Of Images
*Iconoclasm: The Breaking and Making of Images University of Toronto, March 17?19, 2011 Keynote Address by Carol Mavor (Manchester) (others to be confirmed)* The 22nd annual conference of the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto...
- Dante Meets Mtv: Studying Medieval Literature In A Post-medieval Context
Dante meets MTV: Studying Medieval Literature in a Post-Medieval Context 41st Anniversary Convention, Northeast Modern Language Association (NeMLA) April 7-11, 2010 Montreal, Quebec - Hilton Bonaventure This roundtable aims to create a discussion about...