CfP: Contributions for a panel to be submitted for MSA 2021

University of Warsaw, Poland. 5-9 July 2021.

The conference is currently planned to take place both on-campus in Warsaw and online.

Unsilencing the Past: Experiences of Atrocity and its Legacy in Literature and Art

Collective memories of mass atrocity, including genocide, are shaped by the political and cultural realities of the aftermath of violence. Some narratives and experiences are commemorated, whilst others are marginalised, silenced or overlooked. This panel examines the ways in which literature or other creative responses expose previously invisible memories, creating new spaces for public discourse and collective memory. Focusing on the complete destruction of social fabric, the papers in this panel stem from violent histories, such as the Holocaust, Armenian, Cambodian and Bosnian genocides as well as the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, along with their connections to other violent historical events. Exploring convergences, this panel identifies shared questions and concerns of collective memory that resonate across the different contexts and political situations. Challenging the dominant public discourse, literature and art can foreground the voices of marginalised groups or positionalities. Brought together, the papers in this panel demonstrate the recurring patterns of exclusion and inclusion in memory-making and commemoration.

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Please send abstracts for papers (250 words maximum) plus a short bio-bibliographic note (150 words maximum) to anna.katila@kcl.ac.uk and claurent@fas.harvard.edu by 25 October 2020.

Proposals for virtual or physical participation are accepted.

For enquiries, please do not hesitate to contact Anna Katila (anna.katila@kcl.ac.uk).