Dystopia and Utopia in Contemporary German Literature and Film (PAMLA 2021)

CFP: "Dystopia and Utopia in Contemporary German Literature and Film"; PAMLA in Las Vegas, Nevada, Nov 12-15, 2020 [June 1, 2020]

Call for Papers for the Special Session "Dystopia in Contemporary German Literature and Film" at PAMLA in Las Vegas, Nevada. 

In his newest novel, QualityLand, Marc-Uwe Kling eloquently and humorously uses the intersection of dystopia and utopia to highlight the genre’s satirical potential. In a time where political ignorance and easily accessible misinformation dominate more and more discourses, dystopian and utopian narratives function both as warning as well as criticism. While dystopia and utopia are broad literary genres, they can give access to a new angle on questions of class, race, and gender, but also as categories of political and social criticism. This panel seeks to be a discursive space for such questions, but it lends itself to questions of technical intricacies in contemporary German dystopian and utopian literature and film.

This panel is open to any questions related to contemporary German dystopian and utopian literature and film: literary analyses, informed ideas on a specific reoccurring element or motif, questions on the intersection of dystopia and utopia, but also broader questions of gender, race, class, social and political criticism through the lense of dystopia and/or utopia. 

Please submit abstracts via the following link by June 1, 2020: https://pamla.ballastacademic.com/Home/S/18080

For any questions, contact Joscha Klueppel, joschak@uoregon.edu