CFP MLA 2016 (Austin, 01/07-01/10) Special Session “Food and Feast in Outlaw Literature”

Conference papers invited to explore the literary, cultural, and theoretical aspects of food and feasting in traditional outlaw narratives, or texts that have characters who are outsiders, tricksters, transgressors, or marginals. This session will consider the presence and function of food and feast in texts (broadly defined), with an eye to considering whether and how instances of food preparation and eating can be said to display, to develop, or to subvert the conventional ideas of community and fellowship most commonly associated with foods and feasts. This session encourages papers that examine post-medieval texts, cultures, and practices, especially American, Australian, Native American, Pan-American, and Eastern. Please send 200-word abstracts and short bios by 15 March 2015 to Alexander L. Kaufman (akaufman@aum.edu).