LA JOHN DOSS PASSOS SOCIETY CELEBRA CONFERENCIA BIANUAL EN MADRID EN 2016

CFP: Second Biennial John Dos Passos Society Conference (June 2-4, 2016. Madrid, Spain)

full name / name of organization: 

Edward Eason and Rosa Bautista / The John Dos Passos Society

contact email: 

jdpsociety@gmail.com 

Location: Madrid, Spain
Date: June 2-4, 2016
Abstracts Due: January 15, 2016

The John Dos Passos Society invites papers for its second biennial conference.

We welcome proposals on any topic relevant to Dos Passos’s career or life. We are especially interested in his relationship to Spain and Spain’s relationship to Dos Passos’s legacy. The meeting will include a screening of Robles, Duelo al Sol, a new documentary about the fate of José Robles during the Spanish Civil War, and its impact on Dos Passos and his relationship to Hemingway. Following the screening there will be a roundtable with Sonia Tercero (director of Robles, Duelo al Sol), as well as Ignacio Martínez de Pisón (historian of the Spanish Civil War and novelist), and John Dos Passos Coggin (writer, political strategist, and grandson of John Dos Passos).

Possible topics may include Dos Passos and:
• Spain
• translation studies
• war
• Europe
• the Iberian World
• the expatriate experience
• his ideological journey/changing politics
• sex, sexuality, and gender
• labor, the proletarian novel, and the Popular Front
• Ernest Hemingway, José Robles, and/or others involved in the Spanish Civil War
• realist, modernist, and late-modernist aesthetics
• regionalism and internationalism
• genre: histories, travel writing, poetry, essays and so on
• painting and the visual arts
• technology
• his influences
• his influence on contemporary literature
We will also hold a roundtable on “teaching Dos Passos,” and welcome short position papers on classroom experiences with his work.

During his first trip to Madrid as a young student in 1916, John Dos Passos became “mad about Spain” as reflected in his works Rosinante to the Road Again, A Pushcart at The Curb, and his letters and diaries. His understanding of Spanish history, literature, art and politics turned him into an exceptional witness of the events that led up to the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) as reflected in his non-fictional writings on the Spain of the 1930s collected in Journeys Between Wars and In All Countries. With his novel Adventures of a Young Man and his essay “Farewell to Europe,” Dos Passos expressed his political disillusionment after the execution of his Spanish friend and translator José Robles during the war – a tragic event that meant a turning point in his life and writing career and which has been frequently revisited by critics and scholars since.

Madrid is located right in the heart of Spain, with frequent flights to/from the main international airports into Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas, and excellent speed train connections to major cities such as Barcelona, Málaga, Córdoba and Seville. The city is well known for its extraordinary art museums (Prado, Thyssen and Reina Sofia among others), its varied cultural offer and its lively street atmosphere, cafes, restaurants and bars. And of course, the Sierra de Guadarrama, a Dos Passos favorite: “My chief joy […] is the Sierra de Guadarrama; the long range of brown mountains to the North and West: Behind them the sun sets with numbing glory. I’ve never seen such sunsets; they stir up your soul the way a cook stirs a pot of broth but with what a golden spoon” (JDP The Best Times). 

The Conference will be hosted by Universidad Alfonso X El Sabio, Spain’s largest private university with around 11,000 students, at its Madrid-Chamartín Campus where the Faculty of Music and Performative Arts is located. The Conference Site is in the Pio XII area, an average 20-30 minute ride by bus and underground to Madrid’s main attractions and historical center, as well as to the airport and Chamartin Railway Station. There are three hotels within walking distance (5 to 10 minutes): Hotel Ilunion Pio XII [notice name change, formerly Confortel], La Posada del Chaflán and Hotel Don Pío. Whatever your choice, Madrid is full of places to stay, but early booking is strongly recommended since June is a very busy month.

Here are some links for those who want to know more about the city:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/22/travel/36-hours-in-madrid.html?_r=0
http://www.telemadrid.es/programas/madrid-desde-el-aire/madrid-desde-el-...

Please send an abstract of 250-300 words and a brief CV to jdpsociety@gmail.com by January 15th, 2016. Make note of any A/V requests in your abstract. And please note that the language of the conference will be English.

For future updates, more information about registration and membership, traveling to Madrid, Spain, and previous panels and newsletters of the John Dos Passos Society, please visit our site at http://jdpsociety.blogspot.com/. 

cfp categories: 

american

cultural_studies_and_historical_approaches

gender_studies_and_sexuality

general_announcements

interdisciplinary

international_conferences

modernist studies

poetry

theory

travel_writing

twentieth_century_and_beyond