CFP: "Ways of Knowing: Richard Powers and the Novel as Complex Simulation," University of Tours, France, April 9-10, 2004. (fwd)

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

FYI, Heikki.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 30 May 2003 10:32:59 +0200
From: Jaap Verheul <Jaap.Verheul at let.uu.nl>
To: eaas-l at let.uu.nl
Subject: EAAS CFP: "Ways of Knowing: Richard Powers and the Novel as
    Complex Simulation," University of Tours, France, April 9-10, 2004.

>Date: Thu, 29 May 2003 17:22:46 +0200
>From: <eric64 at club-internet.fr>

Ways of Knowing:
Richard Powers and the Novel as Complex Simulation
(April 09-10, 2004)

   Richard Powers, the acclaimed author of such novels as Galatea 2.2, The
Gold Bug Variations and The Time of Our Singing, will be the special guest
of the University of Tours, France, for an international conference on the
latest developments in American literature and its reception in Europe. The
novels of Richard Powers are characterized by both a fascination for complex
systems and a quest for the unpredictable. As such, they tend to focus on
the relationship between poetics and epistemology, and rely on a dynamic
interaction between highly specialized historical, scientific, ideological
and artistic discourses, with the digital processing of information serving
as the primary medium for this interaction.
In order to investigate these and related issues, the conference will
address the following topics:

1 " The Systems Novel "
   -What are the mechanics and dynamics of systems novels? What kinds of
epistemological wanderings does the systems novel initiate? How does the
systems novel confront its own systematicity, thereby suggesting the
capacity of literature to serve as a site of resistance?

2 " The Work of Art in the Age of Digital Transformation "
   -How does the computerized treatment of information affect writing? What
is happening to the reading process in a society dominated by cybernetics?
To what extent does the computer emblematize the contemporary artist=B9s
fascination with science and technology?

3 " The Reception of Contemporary American Literature in Europe "
   -What, to a European readership, are the specific features of
contemporary American literature? What books get translated and why? Is
there a canon of contemporary American literature in European academia?

   All sessions will begin with a statement by Richard Powers and will
consist of three ten-minute papers followed by a thirty-minute discussion.
Proposals dealing with any contemporary American writers concerned with
these themes will also be encouraged. Contributors will be required to
submit an extended version of their papers at least two weeks in advance for
circulation among the panelists and possible publication. Five-hundred-word
proposals should be submitted to =C9ric Athenot (eric64 at club-internet.fr) by
September 15, 2003.

   Scientific committee: =C9ric Athenot (Tours), Mathieu Duplay (Lille),
Jean-Yves Pellegrin (Paris IV) and Anne-Laure Tissut (Tours)