By Mariana Leon
The Conference on Literature and Culture since the 1900s, has been held annually at the University of Louisville campus for the last 35 years, and this year is no exception.
The conference will be held Feb. 22-24, encouraging scholars from around the country to submit proposals, and, if selected, make presentations on any topic related to literature and/or culture since 1900.
This conference attracts more than 600 participants every year, among them students who are able to pick from the more than 400 presentations this conference has to offer.
Attendance is free for students and $10 per day for the general public.
Professor Danielle Day, this years conference director said this year’s conference coincides with the Arts & Sciences Centennial.
“It’s a global event which attracts attendees not only from the all over the United States, but also scholars from all over the world,” said Day.
This year’s conference keynote address will be delivered by Sherman Alexie at the Speed Art Museum Auditorium, on Friday at 5 p.m.
According to FallsApart Productions, Alexie, an American-Indian, was born in 1966 with a condition called hydrocephalus, meaning his brain was filled with abnormal fluids.
He was expected to live with mental retardation and severe physical problems.
Alexie overcame all odds and excelled as a student.
He majored in American Studies at Washington State University, and since has published poetry and short-story collections, and won numerous awards and fellowships.
Guest speaker, poet Lola Haskins of Pacific Lutheran University, will read from her work at 11 a.m. on Thursday in Ekstrom Library’s Chao Auditorium.
Laura Kipnis of Northwestern University and Bruce Robbins of Columbia University will give a critical keynote presentation titled “Blaming” at 4:45 p.m. on Thursday in Room 100 of the Bingham Humanities building.
Special guest keynotes will be delivered by Argentine writer Perla Suez, who will give her speech in Spanish at 3:15 p.m. on Friday in the Chao Auditorium.
Mladen Dolar and Alenka Zupancic from the University of Ljubijana, Slovenia, will speak at 3:15 p.m. on Saturday in the Chao Auditorium.
From “Southern Monsters” to “Theorizing Utopia” to “Foreplay” to “Confrontations in Franz Kafka, Siegfried Lenz, and Martin Walser,” The Conference on Literature and Culture since the 1900s offers a number of very diverse and interesting topics of discussion that are bound to not only acquaint participants with different presentations, but entertain them as well.
