The MLA 2018 Convention will be in NYC this year (Jan 4-7). The International Dostoevsky Society has a guaranteed panel, which will be on this year’s MLA theme: “Dostoevsky and States of Insecurity.” The IDS may also propose two additional panels, the calls for which are as follows:
First Call: Dostoevsky and Conscience
The concept of ‘conscience’ is easily one of the most influential in the history of thought. It is also deployed frequently in the analysis of literary texts. However, the concept is often taken for granted both in literary studies and philosophy. This is especially troubling, given, as Paul Strohm recently put it, that “[c]onscience is a bit of a shape-shifter, remaining elusive in many of its particulars.” Dostoevsky scholarship is no exception, even though conscience plays a central role in his works. What, then, is Dostoevsky’s conception of conscience? Does he investigate multiple conceptions? How does his conception of conscience shape his fictional texts? What insights does his fiction provide for a more general investigation of the concept of conscience? This panel aims to explore these questions. Please submit abstracts of 300 words by March 10 to Dr. Brian Armstrong at barmstr3@augusta.edu.
Second Call: The Idiot at 150
Dostoevsky’s second major novel, The Idiot, its associated with many superlatives: among his works, it is considered the most strange, most enigmatic, most difficult, and most problematic. It began serial publication in The Russian Messenger in January 1868, and so MLA 2018 is the perfect time to begin the sesquicentennial reflection on the novel. Please submit abstracts of 300 words by March 10 to Dr. Brian Armstrong at barmstr3@augusta.edu.
Please submit 300-word abstracts for all three panels to Dr Brian Armstrong (barmstr3@augusta.edu) by March 10.
Bloggers Karamazov 