CFP Poe Studies Association (1/15/13)

Another call courtesy the American Literature Association (pdf at http://www.calstatela.edu/academic/english/ala2/2014%20Poe%20CFP.pdf). 

American Literature Association
25th Annual Conference
May 22 – 25, 2014
Washington DC
CALL FOR PAPERS
Poe Studies Association

1. “Lyrical Eruptions in Poe’s Prose: ‘The Haunted Palace’ 175 years later”

On several occasions Poe inserted a previously published lyric into a new story, perhaps to
assure that his poems reached a wider audience. By way of exploring this mode of recycling
and re-inscription, and to honor its 175th anniversary, this session will take as its focus “The
Haunted Palace,” first published in April 1839 and then given a renewed literary life in The Fall
of the House of Usher (September 1839). The context in which it appears may well provide
deeper insight into the character of our narrator (who self-consciously comments on why he is
able to recite it from memory); and also, by virtue of “the under or mystic current of its meaning,”
into the mind of Roderick Usher. Papers are invited that consider the relation of the poem to the
story; and whether (and to what extent) “The Haunted Palace” is a mirror in miniature,
emblematically refracting the world of the story from within while at the same time projecting a
self-contained if melancholy world of fragile beauty. Close readings and critical interpretations of
the poem are welcome; as are papers that look at the broader issue of lyrical eruptions in Poe,
which might also consider the place of “The Conqueror Worm” (1843) in Ligeia (1845). Do such
lyric eruptions betoken some larger aesthetic plan or purpose? Other topics involving “The
Haunted Palace” as it relates to Poe’s oeuvre also are welcome. To submit a proposal, send a
title and an abstract of no more than 350 words to: William Engel (wengel@sewanee.edu); in
the subject line, put “PSA panel 2014.” Deadline for submissions is January 15, 2014 (panelists
will be notified shortly thereafter).

2. “Teaching Poe’s Poetry”

For Emerson, Poe the poet was a “jingle man,” a writer of lachrymose lyrics, but
Baudelaire and the Symbolists venerated Poe, whom they considered a model of poetic
excellence. Eliciting divergent responses during the nineteenth century, Poe’s verse
continues to frustrate and to intrigue readers in our time. Such divergences present
opportunities for teachers, who can choose from a wide range of approaches as they
introduce the poetry of Poe to students. For this panel, which will feature papers about
pedagogical matters, the Poe Studies Association solicits proposals. Possible topics
include Poe and the lyric in nineteenth-century America; Poe’s poems as primary texts
for theory classes; Poe as a poet in and/or against the Romantic grain; madness as
discursive formation in Poe’s poems of grief; visions of apocalypse in the poetry of Poe
and his contemporaries; Poe and prosody; othering in the poems of Poe; and Poe’s poetry
in the world of antebellum print culture. Other topics are, of course, welcome.
To submit a proposal, send a title and an abstract of no more than 350 words to Travis
Montgomery at tdmontgomery2@fhsu.edu. The subject line should read “PSA panel
2014.” The deadline for submissions is January 15, 2014.