Istanbul University, Department of American Culture and Literature 

The Fifth International Literature and… Conference:

Literature and The City

October 31- November 01, 2019

Istanbul,Turkey 

CALL FOR PAPERS

Saul Bellow calls the city “the expression of the human experience it embodies, and this includes all personal history.” Cities are more than spaces defined in geographical, demographical and administrative terms; more importantly they are reservoirs of human experience accumulated throughout diverse historical eras. Harboring histories, myths, and mysteries, they have souls of their own.  Each city is unique in the way it expresses the sufferings, pains, griefs, desires, aspirations, joys, protests, and struggles of its inhabitants.  Its centers and peripheries, gated communities and ghettos, its decaying monumental edifices and gentrified slums, shopping malls and flea markets bespeak of the co-existence of contradicting and/or overlapping discourses. As multi-layered texts encompassing urban life in all its diversity, they offer tremendously rich material for literature. Many novels and poems can be read as an aesthetic and/or thematic engagement with the city. Yet, literary texts are not mere representations of the city, but they can also question and challenge our habitual perceptions, inviting us to imagine alternative ways of relating to the city.

The Literature and the City conference  encourages papers exploring the intricate relationship between literature and the city from different perspectives with focus on topics which include, but are not limited to the following:

• Writing the city
• Travel writing
• Mapping the city
• Imaginary cities
• Urban vs. Rural
• Crime and the city
• Gentrification
• Gendered cities
• City noir
• Industrial cities

Proposals for workshops in creative writing on the city are also welcome.

Where to Send

Proposals up to 250 words including the author’s name, email address, institutional affiliation (if applicable), discipline, and a brief biographical note should be sent by May 31, 2019 to: literatureconference@gmail.com or edebiyat.ake@istanbul.edu.tr  Please send your submissions as Word or Pdf attachments. 

E-mails should be entitled: Literature and the City Submission

Abstract Notification of Acceptance: June 15, 2019

The accepted abstracts will be published in the Literature and the City proceedings.

No registration or participation fee is required.

Keynote speakers will be announced later.