
First Call for Papers for the ANS panel at the Modern Language Association (MLA) Convention 4-7 January 2018, New York City.
Literary Wordplay with Names
The American Name Society is inviting abstract proposals for a panel with the literary theme “Literary Wordplay with Names.” Case studies in world literature have repeatedly demonstrated the effectiveness of wordplays in producing puns or highlighting aspects of a narrative. However, comparatively little scholarly attention has been given to examining the names themselves as a rhetorical tool for literary wordplay. Interested authors are encouraged to submit an abstract examining the use of any type of name (e.g. personal names, place names, trade names, etc.) in literary wordplays for any period or genre of literature. We welcome submissions from the following areas, which of course are not exhaustive:
· utilizing interdisciplinary approaches
· examining the nature of the name-wordplay (semantics and/or etymology)
· focusing on case studies from early periods of literature, and
· the reception and use of early names in later times (e.g. Shakespeare).
Proposal Submission Process:
1. Abstracts proposals of up to 400 words should be sent as an email attachment (PDF format) to Andreas Gavrielatos (a.gavrielatos@ed.ac.uk).
2. Proposals should include “MLA proposal” in the subject line of the email.
3. All submissions must include an abstract title, the full name(s) of the author(s), the author affiliation, and email address in the body of the email and NOT with the abstract.
4. Proposals must be received by 5pm GMT on 11 March 2017. Authors will be notified about results of the blind review on or by 20 March 2017.
5. Contributors selected for the thematic panel must be members of both MLA and ANS in order to present their papers.
6. For further information, please contact Andreas Gavrielatos (a.gavrielatos@ed.ac.uk).