Some people on the list might be interested in this ...
> Call For Papers: The Question of the Gift
>
> Since Marcel Mauss's landmark anthropological study-cum-romance Essai sur
> le don, scholars in fields as disparate as literature, economics,
> sociology, and erotics have been fascinated with the nature of gift
> exchange and gift economies. More recently, Lewis Hyde's The Gift and
> Jacques Derrida's two Given Time essays have presented compelling theories
> of the gift: Hyde presents the gift economy as an alternative to markets;
> Derrida questions whether the gift is even possible. Very recent studies
> by
> John Frow and Vincent Pecora have further analyzed the gift historically
> in
> relation to commodification, property rights, and the ethics of the
> household.
>
> Useful as these works have been, they leave open numerous questions about
> the gift and gift exchange: what is the relationship between gifts and
> commodities? Does the gift economy exist within markets, or as an
> alternative to them? How do gifts function in non-market societies? What
> do
> gift exchanges reveal about the relationships between persons and
> property?
> Is it possible to formulate a theory of the gift that does not position it
> "outside" or "beyond" or "other to" some normative system? Is the gift
> possible at all?
>
> For a collection of essays that will address these and other questions, we
> seek papers by
> literary scholars and economists, as well as by anthropologists,
> historians, and legal scholars, that will help to map the heterogeneous
> terrain of the gift. We welcome case studies, interpretations of literary
> texts, and theoretical pieces in all genres. We are particularly seeking
> contributions that consider the gift as a material as well as an
> ideational
> entity.
>
> We have already begun preliminary talks with a publisher for the
> collection.
>
> Please send abstracts (500 words or fewer) by January 30, 1999 to:
> Max Thomas, English Dept. / 358 EPB, U of Iowa, Iowa City IA, 52242
> ([log in to unmask])
> or
> Mark Osteen, English Dept. Loyola College in Maryland, 4501 N. Charles St.
> Baltimore, MD 21210 ([log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]).
>
> =+=+=+=+=+=+=
> Max W. Thomas
> Associate Director, Society for Critical Exchange
>
> For more information on the SCE or the Electronic
> College of Theory, email [log in to unmask] or
> surf to http://www.cwru.edu/affil/sce
> =+=+=+=+=+=+=
>
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Alastair Owens
Lecturer in Human Geography
Department of Environment, Geography and Geology
University of Luton
Park Square
Luton
Bedfordshire
LU1 3JU
Tel: 01582 489298 (2298 internal)
E-mail: [log in to unmask]
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