Blog

第二十九屆英美文學國際學術研討會

會議主題：非物質

2021年10月30日

中華民國英美文學學會
國立臺灣師範大學英語學系
共同主辦

徵稿啟事

[徵稿延期至2021年01月31日止]

從蘇格拉底的魔鬼，到柯勒律治(Coleridge)作品裡追趕老水手的極地幽靈，再到最近電腦叛客網路電視影集《碳變》(Altered Carbon)中上傳至「皮層堆疊」(cortical stacks)的可傳遞意識，非物質的概念和再現遍及哲學、文學、電視廣播業和其他多種論述與媒介。所謂的「非物質」在神學裡是天使，在數學裡是p，「在」我的身體裡，則是我所體驗的所有想法、感覺和感質(qualia)。究竟這些非物質的狀態與存有物是什麼?非物質與物質之間又如何產生聯繫並相互影響?這是自古以來無數文獻持續辯論與描繪的主題。

儘管當代理論對身體、物件和物質性等議題有著相當的關注，即使如此，當代理論也不敢忽視「非物質」。其中的思辨實在論(speculative realism)思索非人存在體(nonhuman entities)的內部現實，以不同方式探究湯瑪斯‧內格爾(Thomas Nagel)的著名問題：「成為一隻蝙蝠可能是什麼樣子？」。新物質主義則論證物質與精神現象兩者並非截然二分。在這些理論思潮之前，傅柯、德勒茲和其他二十世紀重要理論家早已針對意識形態、情動力和虛擬有所探究，他們的許多分析也啟發了部分前述的當代理論流派。若進一步回溯，則有精神分析和哲學中唯心論的傳統(the idealist tradition) ，兩者為心靈現象展開縝密的論述，並持續影響著當代視野。

上述這些思考問題的方式若有貫穿的主題，或許就是事物之間的聯結方式。比方說，非物質和物質之間如何交流溝通？個體與個體之間、個體與集體之間如何被分開或聯結？靈魂，是否如同傅柯所述，是「身體的禁錮」──若果真如此，我們如何逃脫？身體，是否如同麗莎‧布萊克曼(Lisa Blackman)所述，為非物質的──若是，那麼何處是我身體的終點？我的意識和其他意識，如一隻蝙蝠的意識，又如何交融成一個生態、一個地球生態系(Gaia)或一個世界靈魂體？意識形態和情動力如何引發集體情緒，進而維持或改變時下的政治面貌？文學、書頁、（數位）油墨的物質性──以及非物質無形體的文學形式和文類、感官與意義──如何形塑與拆解我們的心理和與他者的互動？綜合上述，「非物質」是一個可以拋接於無數理論中的介面，鑒於「非物質」議題的重要性，本次研討會因此以「非物質」為題，誠摯邀請各位學者、先進與文學愛好者，從各個面向探討「非物質」在英美文學中的展現與論辯，以期為英美文學的創作、閱讀與理論研究開展出更寬廣多元的「非物質」空間。

會議包含但不侷限於以下子題：

l   唯心論的(idealist)哲學傳統，或特定理想主義運動（例如：新柏拉圖主義、德國唯心主義）和文學之間的關係

l   近期非物質理論的概念，如格拉厄姆‧哈曼(Graham Harman)的《非物質主義》(Immaterialism)或伊莉莎白‧葛洛思 (Elizabeth Grosz) 的《無形體》(The Incorporeal)，或者更廣泛的學術思潮，如思辨實在論和新物質主義

l   精神分析，如夢、執念、創傷、趨力、絕爽(jouissance)等

l   科學（如認知心理學和神經科學）中的非物質

l   宗教、神秘主義與泛靈論，如鬼魂、天使與魔鬼、幽靈、通靈和靈性等

l   弱勢理論與非物質，如原住民研究、失能研究、酷兒研究、女性主義研究、批判種族研究、解殖民研究中的非物質論述與分析等

l   科幻小說中的物質與非物質辯證，如賽伯格、外星人、機器人、人造智慧、VR、擴增實體或其他變體等

l   恐怖與奇幻文學裡的物種

l   超能力（如：預知與心電感應）、靈異現象和心靈技術（如冥想、瑜珈、祈禱等）

l   魔術、鍊金術、玄學和偽科學等

l   其他相關議題，如時間、空間、邏輯、數學和高次元、情動力、感情和情緒等

歡迎個人或3至4人組成之專題小組，針對主題提案。稿件中英文不拘。請於2021年01月31日(週日)前將論文題目、關鍵詞與摘要 (300-500字內)，以及提案人簡歷(含論文題目、提案人姓名、服務單位、職稱、著作等簡歷與聯絡方式)電郵至 “2021eala@gmail.com”，並註明「投稿2021研討會摘要」等字樣。主辦單位將於2021年3月中旬以前通知審查結果。

論文全文繳交日期為2021年10月15日。英美文學學會鼓勵投稿人以中英文撰寫及發表論文，會後並將論文修訂版投稿至《英美文學評論》（該刊為 THCI 第一級期刊，刊登中英文稿件）。

※參加會議發表論文之前，必須具備或取得英美文學學會會員資格。

·      主辦單位聯絡方式：

地址：10610台北市和平東路一段162號 國立臺灣師範大學英語學系轉
第二十九屆英美文學學術研討會籌備委員會收

電子郵件：2021eala@gmail.com

·    重要日期：

論文摘要截止日期：2021年1月31日
論文摘要審查結果通知日期：2021年3月15日
論文全文繳交日期：2021年10月15日
研討會日期：2021年10月30日

………………………………………………………………….

The 29^thAnnual Conference of the English and American Literature Association

Theme: The Immaterial

Conference Organizers: ROC English and American Literature Association (EALA, Taiwan) and National Taiwan Normal University, Taiwan

Date: October 30, 2021

Venue: National Taiwan Normal University (Main Campus), Taipei, Taiwan

Call for Papers

(Deadline extended to January 31, 2021)

From Socrates’ daemon to the polar spirit that pursues Coleridge’s ancient mariner to the transferrable consciousness uploaded into “cortical stacks” on the recent cyberpunk series Altered Carbon, conceptions and representations of the immaterial abound in philosophy, literature, television, and almost every other discourse and medium. In theology, angels. In mathematics, p. “In” my body, all the ideas, sensations, and qualia that I experience. Exactly what these immaterial states and entities are and how they relate to and interact with material ones has been the subject of much debate and depiction in countless texts over millennia.

Nor does contemporary theory, which informs so much of our literary analysis, dismiss the immaterial as immaterial, despite its ample focus on bodies and materiality. There is the movement known as speculative realism, which speculates on, among other things, the interior reality of nonhuman entities, asking various permutations of Thomas Nagel’s famous question, “What is it like to be a bat?” There is the movement known as new materialism, which argues that there is no definitive break between material and spiritual phenomena. These relatively recent movements were preceded, and in some cases are informed, by the many analyses of ideologies, affects, and the virtual associated with the work of Michel Foucault, Gilles Deleuze, and other important theorists of the twentieth century. Running even further back, psychoanalysis and the idealist tradition in philosophy can likewise be seen as developing sophisticated explanations for psychic phenomena that continue to shape our present perspectives.

If all of these approaches have a unifying theme, perhaps it is that of connection. How do the immaterial and material communicate? How are individual selves split from, or connected to, each other and larger collectives? Is the soul, as Foucault puts it, the prison of the body—and if so, how do we escape? Is the body, as Lisa Blackman puts it, immaterial—and if so, where does my body end? How is my consciousness and the consciousness of, say, a bat integrated into an ecology, a Gaia, or a world soul? How do ideologies and affects give rise to a collective mood that maintains or alters the political landscape? How does the materiality of literature, the leaves, the (digital) ink—but also its intangible forms and genres, senses and meanings—form and deform our psychology and interactions with others? The immaterial is an interface upon which infinite ideas can be cast, and we ask that you cast them in our direction. Possible paper topics on the immaterial in English and American literature include, but are not limited to, the following:

l   the idealist philosophical tradition, or more specifically the relationship between particular idealist movements (e.g., Neoplatonism, German Idealism) and literature

l   recent theoretical conceptions of the immaterial, such as Graham Harman’s Immaterialism or Elizabeth Grosz’s The Incorporeal, or broader movements like speculative realism and new materialism

l   psychoanalysis: dreams, obsession and paranoia, traumas, drive, jouissance, etc.

l   cognitive psychology and neuroscience

l   religion, mysticism, and panpsychism (including the topics of ghosts, angels and spirits, demons, spiritualism, and spirituality)

l   theorization of the immaterial from minority knowledge, such as theories and analyses emerging from indigenous studies, disability studies, queer studies, feminist studies, critical race studies, decolonial studies, etc.

l   the material-immaterial dialectic in science fiction: cyborgs, aliens, robots, AI, VR, augmented realities, or other alternated entities)

l   species in horror and fantasy

l   super powers (such as precognition and telepathy), paranormality and spiritual practices (including meditation, yoga, prayer, and so on)

l   magic, alchemy, occult and pseudoscience

l   other topics including time and/or space, logic, mathematics, and higher dimensions, affect, emotion, and mood

We encourage individuals, as well as pre-formed panels, to submit abstracts of 300-500 words, with a title and 5 keywords, including short CVs (name, title, affiliations, selected publications, contacts) to the committee at 2021eala@gmail.com by January 15, 2021. Electronic acknowledgements of submission will be sent to all submitters upon receipt of the abstract. Notifications of acceptance will be sent by March 15, 2021. Full papers should be submitted by October 15, 2021.

Important Dates:

l   Abstract submission deadline: January 31, 2021.

l   Abstract acceptance notification: March 15, 2021.

l   Full paper submission deadline: October 15, 2021.

l   Conference date: October 30, 2021.