Our Future Environment

UNDERGROUND

Interdisciplinary Graduate Conference November 6-7, 2008

Department of Comparative Literature

Graduate Center, City University of New York

365 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10016

 

Call for Papers

I am convinced that fellows like me who live in dark cellars must be
kept under restraint. They may be able to live in their dark cellars for
forty years and never open their mouths, but the moment they get into
the light of day and break out they may talk and talk and talk…

 

-Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Notes from Underground

 

How do we perceive the underground? What lies beneath the surface?
Wherein lies the significance of this metaphor? In defining the
“underground” we have an immediate understanding of the term in its
political, artistic, spatial and temporal dimensions: secret societies,
the avant-garde, the unknown, the underworld. But what else constitutes
the underground? Since antiquity we have been fascinated by the
possibility of a separate realm that does not abide by the conventions
of the known world. The underground also represents all that is hidden
within the human psyche and that resists our attempts to excavate it.
This conference intends to explore manifestations of the underground
across all disciplines: literature, art, music, film, political science,
sociology, psychology, art history, classics, philosophy, etc.

 Papers might focus on the following topics, but are not limited to
these:

 

The underground man in the novel-the underworld-Hades-the
subversive-counterculture-resistance
movements-outlaws-outcasts-misfits-the subconscious-the subway-the
metro-the grave-le gouffre-the living
dead-internment-revolution-catacombs-bomb
shelters-thresholds-sewage-treasure-secret societies-the mole-urban
myth-irony-the hidden-underground railroad-slave narrative-the
avant-garde in music, film, art and writing.

Please submit abstracts of up to 300 words to cunyundergroundATgmail.com
or to the address below. Special consideration will be given to panel
proposals. We will acknowledge the receipt of abstracts within 2-3
days. The deadline for submissions is August 18, 2008.

You will be notified if your proposal has been accepted no later than
September 17, 2008 and we would like to have confirmation from those
whose submissions have been accepted no later than October 1, 2008.
There is no registration fee and the conference is free to attend.
Please send all questions to the above listed email address.

Filed under: caves, goals on June 20th, 2008