[ecrea] Call for Papers Games and Literary Theory

>
> University of Malta
>Institute of Digital Games and the Department of English
>
> International Conference Series in Games and Literary Theory
>Inaugural Conference
>University of Malta, 31st October-­-1st November 2013
>
> This inaugural event in the Digital Games and Literary Theory
>Conference Series follows on
>from a successful International Workshop held at the University of Malta
>last year. That event
>established the scope, appeal and timeliness of interdisciplinary research
>involving Game
>Studies and Literary Theory. While there are ample conference
>opportunities for discussion of
>the impact of Game Studies on other fields in the Humanities and on the
>amenability, in turn,
>of Game Studies to critique by those fields, events where the affinities
>with Literary Theory
>take centre stage are, by comparison, quite rare. This is surprising.
>
> There are, in fact, a number of reasons why a forum for formalised
>exchanges across
>the two fields is now overdue, and why the prospect of it should be
>exciting and enriching for
>both areas. For one thing, digital games’ modalities could be seen as
>reconfiguring and
>possibly subverting conceptualities and orthodoxies integral to literary
>theory (such as
>matters concerning textuality, subjectivity, authorship, the linguistic
>turn, the ludic, and the
>very nature of fiction).
>
> Additionally, and conversely, theory’s capacities for close and
>rigorous critique finds
>ample opportunity for extension in digital games. The discourse on theory
>in the area of game
>studies is, by some lights, remarkably slow in bringing to bear those
>perspectives which theory
>is peculiarly well endowed to address (for instance, on matters concerning
>undecidability, the
>trace, the political unconscious, the allegorical, and the autopoietic, to
>name but a few likely
>avenues). To be sure, the encounter between Digital Games and Literary
>Theory is not
>inexistent. The lively debate around narrative in games and about the
>nature of concepts such
>as fiction and the virtual, as well as discussion about indeterminacies
>across characters,
>avatars and players, attest to that. But there can be no doubt that there
>is much more that
>can be broached within that encounter. A conference series providing for
>regular meetings
>where that could start to occur, allowing for new thinking on the
>mutuality and divergences
>between Games and Literary Theory, would be extremely helpful in
>energizing the debate
>further and in helping the two areas to find a congenial and productive
>space for their
>interaction.
>
> To this end, the organizers of this First International Conference on
>Games and Literary
>Theory?based at the Institute of Digital Games and the Department of
>English at the
>
>
>
> University of Malta, and networked with a number of academics in the
>United States, Europe,
>Australia and Asia equally committed to this interdisciplinary
>undertaking?are issuing a Call
>for Papers that invites proposals for presentations that could focus on
>issues related, but not
>limited to, any (or a combination of) the following :
>
>
>
>*
> - Textuality in literature and games.
>
>
>
>*
> - Rethinking fiction after digital games.
>
>
>
>*
> - Characters, avatars, players, subjects: What changes occur for
>literary theory when
>
> digital games are considered?
>
>
>
>*
> - New forms of narrative and games.
>
>
>
>*
> - Games and the rethinking of culture.
>
>
>
>*
> - Genetic criticism.
>
>
>
>*
> - Digital games and literariness, and/or intermediality.
>
>
>
>*
> - Digital games and authorship and/or focalization.
>
>
>
>*
> - Autopoiesis, literary theory, and digital games.
>
>
>
>*
> - Reception theory, reader experience, player experience: new
>phenomenologies for
>
> critique.
>
>
>
>*
> - Gender in games, literature, theory: transformation or more of the
>same?
>
>
>
>*
> - Digital games, literary theory and posthumanism.
>
>
>
>*
> - Game Studies and the New Humanities.
>
>
>
>*
> - Possible Worlds Theory and games.
>
>
>
>*
> - Digital games in literature.
>
> We invite scholars with an interest in the conjunction of games and
>literary theory to submit
>abstracts between 1000 and 1500 words including bibliography. The deadline
>for submissions
>is April 30th 2013. Please submit your abstract in PDF format to
>(gamelit2013 /at/ um.edu.mt).
>
> All submitted abstracts are subject to a double blind peer review,
>which will be the
>basis for the programme committee’s selection of papers for the
>conference. A full paper
>draft must then be submitted by September 30th.
>
> Papers will be made available to participants on the conference
>website. A selection of
>top papers from the conference will form a Special Issue of Game Studies
>focused on Literary
>Theory and Games. Notifications of acceptance will be sent out by June
>15th , 2013.
>
> Gordon Calleja
>Espen Aarseth
>Hans-­-Joachim Backe
>Ziva Ben-­-Porat
>
> Ivan Callus
>Diane Carr
>Patrick Crogan
>Joyce Goggin
>Brian Greenspan
>Stephan Gunzel
>Cynthia Haynes
>Stefan Herbrechter



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