Monday, July 18, 2011

[UPDATE]: The Ethics of Pleasure in Early Modern Literature and Philosophy (St. Louis, MO, Nov. 3-6, 2011)

eflecting the 2011 MMLA conference theme “Play…No, Seriously,” this interdisciplinary panel seeks to bring together scholars interested in examining the value and uses of pleasure in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century literature and philosophy, especially in texts in which the two disciplines intersect. The panel welcomes submissions from the European tradition widely construed and beyond. Submissions might include, but are not limited to, topics on any of the following:
• Philosophical play, speculation, and skepticism
• The pleasure of discovery and invention
• Playful uses of philosophical modes and genres, e.g. paradox,
dialogue, dialectic, etc.
• Theories of/about pleasure
• The relationship between virtue and pleasure
• Pleasure and the senses, the imagination, or reason
• Playful appropriation of classical philosophies
Please submit abstracts not exceeding 250 words to Melissa Caldwell atmcaldwell@eiu.edu by July 19th. Accepted participants must register for the conference by July 22.
This year the MMLA Convention will be held in St. Louis, MO, November 3-6, 2011.