October 5-7, 2023
Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District Hotel
Philadelphia, PA

“Anger”- Keynote Speaker: Robert J. C. Young

Robert J. C. Young is Julius Silver Professor of English and Comparative Literature at New York University. From 1989-2005 he was Professor of English and Critical Theory at Oxford University and a fellow of Wadham College. He earned his B.A., M.A., and D.Phil. degrees in English from Exeter College, Oxford University.

His books include White Mythologies: Writing History and the West (1990); Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Culture, Theory and Race (1995); Torn Halves: Political Conflict in Literacy and Cultural Theory (1996); Postcolonialism: An Historical Introduction (2001); Postcolonialism: A Very Short Introduction (2003); The Idea of English Ethnicity (2008). He is also the Editor of Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies and was a founding editor of The Oxford Literary Review.

Young has lectured in over 30 countries, and his work has been translated into over 20 languages.

For the 2023 meeting of the Society for Comparative Literature and the Arts, we welcome contributions that examine the notion of anger in comparative studies and literary theory. What does anger signify today? Whose anger matters? Why are some bodies allowed to be angry—their anger is deemed appropriate, justified, and even dignified—while others, often racialized bodies, are constantly condemned for being so? What is the future of anger? Has it been freed from a politics of respectability? Is anger irremediably tied to a rhetoric of victimhood and/or identity politics? Under what circumstances can it be deployed for a universal politics? With an eye for its many permutations, the conference will consider anger’s reinvigorated existence and persistence in the contemporary world. Topics of interest could include:

• Anger and racism
• Anger and the philosophical tradition
• Anger and its relation to hate/ressentiment
• Bad affects
• White anger
• Queer anger
• The politics of respectability
• The rhetoric of blame
• Audre Lorde and the politics of rage
• The feminist killjoy
• The Right to Anger
• Anger’s negativity
• Anti-colonial anger
• Liberalism and anger-management
• Anger and the death drive
• Anger and gendered and/or sexualized bodies

Abstract deadline: July 30th, 2023

Email: [email protected]

Panel and paper proposals related to the conference theme are especially encouraged, but all topics are welcome. Please submit panel proposals (500 words) and individual abstracts (250 words) by July 30th, 2023. Please include in the body of the email your name, academic affiliation, status (faculty, grad student, etc.), and mailing address. For panel proposals, include the names, addresses, and affiliations for all participants.

Graduate students submitting a paper proposal may be eligible for an SCLA travel scholarship.

Hotel Information:

The conference will be held at the Wyndham Philadelphia Historic District hotel, 400 Arch Street, Philadelphia PA. The SCLA group rate is $189 dollars per night from October 4-8. Rooms must be reserved by September 1, 2023 using the following link: SCLA Annual Conference