Many of our more experimental contemporary novelists have written occasional plays (Flann O’Brien, Doris Lessing, Dermot Healy, Susan Sontag and Toni Morrison come to mind) – although often times these plays have received scant critical attention from those academics who study their work. Conversely, many contemporary playwrights have written novels which have received scant attention as well (Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, Wendy Wasserstein, and Ntozake Shange come to mind). This collection of essays would give contributors an opportunity to discuss – among other things – the various resonances between the two mediums – both in the works of individual authors – and more generally (i.e., you might expect to see the formal features of a novelist’s fiction show up in unexpected ways in their drama, and vice versa).
Samuel Beckett becomes an obvious literary touchstone in this respect, as he is equally famous in both mediums. Moreover, much Beckett criticism deals with both mediums simultaneously by looking at aesthetic and philosophical issues which transcend fiction and drama (most notable in this regard is Enoch Brater’s The Drama in the Text: Beckett’s Late Fiction). And so it is with Beckett in mind that we look to consider other novelists and playwrights who have worked in both mediums, albeit even if in a more limited fashion than Beckett. The expectation is that looking at such cross currents in the various subjects’ works will open up new avenues for discussion, ultimately leading to new observations about each author’s better known work.
SUBMISSIONS
Proposals: Please submit 300 – 500 word proposals to Daniel Jernigan (djernigan@ntu.edu.sg). Proposals should outline the primary argument of the proposed essay in a way that speaks to the concern of the CFP (although the listed authors are meant only as a sample of the possibilities).
Deadline for proposals: March 30th, 2014. Response by April 30th, 2014.
Completed essay submissions: Those who are invited to complete the essays will bear the following in mind:
Essays should follow MLA guidelines
Essays should be 5000 – 6000 words
Deadline for final submission: August 15th, 2014.
Publication Date: Winter 2015.
Address all inquiries to Daniel Jernigan via e-mail.
