Literature { } Religion

Inaugural Conference for the Study of Literature and Religion

The University of California, Irvine. Friday, May 11, 2012

Studies of the relationship between literature and religion have picked up significant
momentum in recent years, with many scholars in the humanities, arts, and social
sciences taking a religious or postsecular turn in their work. This conference seeks
to gather scholars across varied disciplines and areas of expertise to explore the wide
variety of intersections, parallels, collaborations, ruptures, and inspirations to be found
under the rubric of a discussion focused on literature and/or/with/on/of/against/about/in
religion.
Without privileging either term or limiting the prepositions or conjunctions between
them, UCIs Literature { } Religion conference is conceived with all the broadness
that its name implies. We seek extensive engagement with various religious traditions
both Western and Eastern, monotheistic, polytheistic, or non-theistic. Papers may
include but are not limited to studies of any literary, rhetorical, narrative, or textual
aspects of literature and religion. We invite essays on exegesis and hermeneutics;
discursive intersections of civil and canon law; ethics and justice explored in religious
and secular literature; the poetics of holy writings; political theology; orthodoxies
and/or heterodoxies; humanisms; religious art and imagery; literary works about
religion; secularization and the post-secular; religious aesthetics; literature as a mode of
religious engagement; comparative literary and religious studies; and conflicts mediated
through literature and religion. Papers will be 15-20 minutes long to permit time for
discussion.
Finally, there will be a plenary session with Professor Jack Miles (UCI), Pulitzer Prize-
winning author of God: A Biography and editor of the forthcoming Norton Anthology of
World Religions, which will be published in two volumes at almost 4,000 pages in Fall
2013. Professor Miles will share his views and lead a discussion on the relationship
between literature and religion.
This conference will take place on Friday, May 11, 2012, at the University of California,
Irvine.
Those who heed the call for papers should send abstracts to Brian Garcia
(bjgarcia@uci.edu), to whom inquires may also be addressed.
Abstracts should be no longer than 300 words, and should arrive before January 30,
2012. Invitees will be notified by March 30, 2012.
9th Dec 2011
Please join us for the inaugural conference of the Study of Literature and Religion, to be
held on Friday, May 11, 2012, at the University of California, Irvine.
Deadline for abstracts: January 30, 2012.
For more information, please contact Brian Garcia at bjgarcia@uci.edu