Seeking Voices / Seeking Silences

SEEKING VOICES / SEEKING SILENCES

Boston University Romance Studies Graduate Student Conference

Saturday, April 4th

Call for Papers

“Speech and silence are instruments of power, of self-assertion and self- definition: they take part in the constitution not only of an individual and his or her life story, but also of a group, a community, a nation, and their history.” - Vanessa Guignery

Although voices and silences may at first glance be conceived as total opposites, residing in opposite poles, we must understand them as interconnected. Voices and silences saturate the spheres of literature, politics, ethics, art, and media. In today’s world, hearing inaudible voices within public spaces is at the very core of many of our reflections.

How do we collect voices? How do we record silences? Can words give full account of individual realities? What is the relevance of language when life experiences seem to be indescribable?

Possible topics include, but are not limited to:

- Silence and trauma
- Mediums of expression: music, art, news, etc. Describing the indescribable
- The silenced other
- Forgotten, lost, or silenced authors
- Secrets, murmurs, and rumors
- Collecting voices, archives and memory                  - Silence through censorship / silence as protest        - The unspeakable

Please submit abstracts of 200-250 words for individual presentation or panel proposals to rsgsabu@gmail.com. Please write your abstract and the paper that you will be presenting in English. The deadline for submission is December 5, 2019. Submission decisions will be sent out no later than December 20, 2019.