Call for Papers    

"Faulkner and the Ecology of the South"

The 30th Annual Faulkner and Yoknapatawpha Conference
July 20-25, 2003

Deadline: January 15, 2003

The concept of ecology has come to have a dual focus, referring to the systems of relations that exist both in the natural world and the constructed world. These systems, one pertaining to the relationships between natural organisms and their physical environments, the other with human groups and their social, as well as physical, environments, are increasingly regarded as interdependent. As Lawrence Buell has recently put it, one of the major tasks of ecocriticism "is to put 'green' and 'brown' landscapes, the landscapes of exurbia and industrialization, in conversation with each other."

One of the aims of the 2003 conference is to explore that "conversation" as it exists in Faulkner's fiction. Throughout his career Faulkner was attentive to the dynamics of specific human groupings--ranging from the communities of Jefferson and Frenchman's Bend and the distinct African-American and Native-American groups within and without those communities, to the complex family structures of Sartoris, Compson, Bundren, and
McCaslin--and to the specific settings of those groups within their natural and constructed environments. The play of setting and individual and group dynamics is constant, at times
harmonious, at other times a source of conflict, as the human vacillates between struggle against the various forms of environment and a desire to act in accord with them.

Some of the questions that might be addressed: How does Faulkner's fiction develop and change in its depiction of the ecological situation? Do ecological issues become moral and
ethical issues in the fiction? Is there any kind of consistent Yoknapatawpha ecology? How does the fiction treat the phenomena of weather, "natural" disaster, the relations between town and country, animal and human? To what extent does Faulkner's fiction reflect the larger Southern ecological situation within which much of that fiction takes place?

We are inviting both 50-minute plenary addresses and 15 minute conference papers for this conference. Plenary papers consist of approximately 6,000 words and will be published by the University Press of Mississippi. Conference papers consist of approximately 2,500 words and will be delivered at panel sessions.

For plenary papers the 14th edition of the University of Chicago Manual of Style should be used as a guide in preparing manuscripts. Three copies of manuscripts must be submitted by January 15, 2003. Notification of selection will be made by March 1, 2003. Authors whose papers are selected for presentation at the conference and publication will receive 1) a waiver of the conference registration fee, 2) lodging at the University Alumni
House from Saturday, July 19, through Friday, July 25, and 3) reimbursement of travel expenses, up to $500 ($.345 a mile by automobile or tourist class air fare).

For short papers, three copies of two-page abstracts must be submitted by January 15, 2003. Notification will be made by March 1, 2003. Authors whose papers are selected for panel presentation will receive a waiver of the $200 conference registration fee. In addition to commercial lodging, inexpensive dormitory rooms are available. Panel papers may be submitted to Journal x for possible publication.

All manuscripts and inquiries should be addressed to:

Donald Kartiganer

Department of English

The University of Mississippi

University, MS 38677

Telephone: 662-915-5793,

e-mail: dkartiga@olemiss.edu.

Manuscripts should only be sent by  conventional mail, not e-mail or fax.