Call for Papers

Forever Poe

Edgar Allan Poe (1809-1849) revolutionized the art of writing short stories, detective stories, science fiction, fantastic literature, horror stories, and lyrical poetry. His extraordinary oeuvre lives in the minds of readers and writers not only as literature, but also as film. Poised between sanity and madness, Poe’s characters give a new significance to the boundaries between fact and fiction. His portrayals of the world of dreams, the shackles of remorse, guilt, and penitence become the setting where his monstrous creatures grapple with language and its dilemmas. A master of brevity and in the art of capturing the interest and emotion of the reader, Poe’s massive collection of multi-genre works explores the esoteric sciences, the weirdest diseases, and the underworld of modernity. A philosopher of composition as well as father of detective stories as a genre, Poe is much more than a poet of his own time: he is our contemporary. His fictional narratives, poems, and reflections on the art of writing, translated into numerous languages and illuminated with humor and irony, will forever accompany the dilemmas oftwentieth-century readers, writers and filmmakers dedicated to fathom the soul and its psychological abysses.

The aims of this international conference are: 1) to celebrate Edgar Allan Poe in the year of the bicentennial of his birth by engaging in a discussion of his relevance for literature and the other arts; 2) to re-evaluate issues embedded in his works such as the relationship between fear and literature, crimes and their strategies of enunciation, lyrical poetry and the figurations of power, fault, guilt and the human condition; and, 3) to explore the possible translations of the critical and fictional theories of one of the most accomplished writers of all times.

We invite papers that address the following topics:
· Poe and the translations of his works
· Poe and literary theory
· Poe and lyrical poetry
· Poe and horror stories
· Poe and detective stories
· Poe and the reception of his writings
· Poe, humor and irony

Date: September 20–23, 2009

Please send abstracts for 20-minute papers (not more than 200 words) with a short CV including an indication of academic affiliation by email to eapoe2009@gmail.com.The deadline is 15 August 2009.