Fwd: EAAS-L CFP: ?Worlds Out of Joint: Re-Imagining Philip K. Dick,? TU Dortmund University, Germany, November 15-18 , 2012.

[Heikki Raudaskoski]

"What do Thomas Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut or David Foster Wallace owe to  
Dick?", etc... The conference makes even Dortmund attractive.


Heikki

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  Subject: EAAS-L CFP: ?Worlds Out of Joint: Re-Imagining Philip K.  
Dick,? TU Dortmund University, Germany, November 15-18 , 2012.
       To: "eaas-l (Mailman)" <eaas-l at let.uu.nl>

> From: Walter Gruenzweig [mailto:walter.gruenzweig at udo.edu] Sent:  
> Sunday, November 27, 2011 12:14 PM

Call for Papers

?Worlds Out of Joint: Re-Imagining Philip K. Dick?
An International Conference
15-18 November, 2012
TU Dortmund University, Germany

2012 sees the thirtieth anniversary of the untimely death, at the age  
of 53, of Philip K. Dick ? a figure whose cultural impact within and  
beyond science fiction remains difficult to overestimate. Dick?s  
academic and popular reputation continues to grow, as a number of  
recent monographs, several biographies and an unceasing flow of film  
adaptations testify. Yet while his status as ?The Most Brilliant  
Sci-Fi Mind on Any Planet? (Paul Williams) is rarely questioned,  
scholarly criticism of Dick has not kept pace with recent developments  
in academia ? from transnationalism to adaptation studies, from the  
cultural turn in historiography to the material turn in the  
humanities. Too often Dick remains shrouded in clichés and myth.  
Indeed, rarely since the seminal contributions of Fredric Jameson and  
Darko Suvin have our engagements with Dick proved equal to the  
complexity of his writing ? an oeuvre indebted to the pulps and  
Goethe, Greek philosophy and the Beats ? that calls for renewed  
attempts at a history of popular culture. The aim of this conference  
is to contribute to such an undertaking.
At a time when mass protest against irrational economic, political and  
cultural orders is once again erupting around the world, the Dortmund  
conference will return to one of the major figures of the long  
American Sixties: to an author whose prophetic analyses of  
biopolitical capitalism and the neo-authorian surveillance state  
remain as pertinent as they were 30 years ago.

Confirmed keynote speakers: Marc Bould (University of the West of  
England, Bristol), Roger Luckhurst (Birbeck, University of London) and  
Norman Spinrad (New York/Paris).

Possible topics for panels and papers include but are in no way limited to:

1.	The Realist Novels: What do Dick?s early realist novels add to our  
understanding of his work? In what relation do they stand to late  
modernist and realist U.S. literature? Can they be understood as Beat  
writing?
2.	Transnational Approaches: Dick drew on various European and  
non-European cultures, and his SF worlds are highly transnational in  
their hybridity: What cultural transfers and transformations are  
evident in his work?
3.	Dick?s Global Reception: Dick?s fiction has been widely translated  
? from Portuguese to Japanese, from Finnish to Hebrew. Yet we know  
little about his global reception. How has Dick?s work been read  
abroad, and transformed in translation? What has been his impact on SF  
outside America?
4.	Dick and the SF Tradition: Critics have rarely engaged in-depth  
with Dick?s contribution to SF. What is Dick?s debt to the pulp  
magazines, to Robert Heinlein, A. E. van Vogt, or other SF authors? To  
what extent did Dick influence his contemporaries, and what does  
today?s SF owe to him?
5.	Dick and Fandom: Long before his canonization as a literary figure,  
Dick was a cult author, and he retains a committed fan base. How has  
fandom shaped the way we read him? What role does Dick play in SF  
cultures of fandom today?
6.	Narrative Structures and Aesthetics: Dick?s short fiction and  
novels are linked by common motifs, tropes and fictional devices. How  
do they shape his writing? His status as a popular writer has also  
meant that the aesthetic dimension of Dick?s fiction has often been  
neglected. How can it help us understand his work?
7.	Dick and Mainstream Literature: Dick?s impact on ?serious?  
literature has often been posited but rarely analyzed. What do Thomas  
Pynchon, Kurt Vonnegut or David Foster Wallace owe to Dick? What role  
have his writings played in the integration of SF into mainstream  
literature?
8.	Adaptations: What makes Dick?s writing so attractive to filmmakers?  
How have these visual narratives changed our understanding of his  
work? Should we pay more attention to adaptations to other media ?  
from opera to computer games?
9.	The Letters and Journals: How do Dick?s letters and journals, as  
well as interviews with him change our understanding of his fiction?
10.	The Final Novels: Dick?s late novels are gaining increasing  
attention, but critical evaluations vary widely. Are they evidence of  
a spiritual turn in Dick?s writing? How do they allow us to look at  
his work of the 1960s anew?
11.	Dick and the Sixties: Recent scholarship drastically has changed  
our understanding of the Sixties. Does this necessitate a re-writing  
of Dick? What can we learn from the contradictions and achievements  
that shaped this era and Dick?s writing?
12.	Dick and Global Capitalism: How do Dick's analyses of global  
capitalism, mediatized politics and individualized consumer culture  
correspond to our own present?

Please send an abstract of no more than 500 words and a short  
biographical sketch to Stefan.Schlensag at udo.edu before 29 February  
2012. Presenters will be asked to submit a full version of their  
20-minute presentation by 31 August, and an electronic reader will be  
distributed before the conference to all participants. A selection of  
the papers given at the conference will be published in book form.


Conference Organizers:
Walter Grünzweig, Randi Gunzenhäuser, Sybille Klemm, Stefan Schlensag,  
Florian Siedlarek, (TU Dortmund University); Alexander Dunst  
(University of Potsdam) and Damian Podle?ny (Krakow)

Conference Director and Contact:
Stefan Schlensag
Institut für Anglistik und Amerikanistik
TU Dortmund University
Emil-Figge-Straße 50
D-44227 Dortmund, Germany
Stefan.Schlensag at udo.edu


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