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Dear colleagues, See below. Best, Emily Dr Emily Jeremiah Senior Lecturer in German Director of German OFFICE HOURS: Tue 16-17; Thur 9.30-10.30 School of Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures Royal Holloway University of London Egham Surrey TW20 0EX Tel. +44 (0)1784 443256 [log in to unmask] http://tinyurl.com/ejeremiah Call for abstracts – Eating Disorders in Contemporary Women’s Writing (deadline 30 January 2015) Dear colleagues, Following the success of the symposium “Paradoxical Languages” which I organized with Gill Rye at the Centre for the Study of Contemporary Women’s Writing (Institute of Modern Languages, University of London) last May, Petra Bagley, Kathryn Robson and I are very pleased to announce a call for abstracts for a cross-cultural book project on the fictional depiction of eating disorders in post-1968 women’s writing, to be developed from the event. Throughout the history of Western culture the relationship between women and food has often been perceived as a metaphor for something else. From the much debated biblical episode of Eve and the apple to postmodern society, women’s eating habits have been read not only as acts of self-nourishment but also as a display of affection, sexuality and tendency to sin. This multifaceted relationship between women and food reaches its crisis point in the development of contemporary discussion on eating disorders which, however, have existed under numerous guises for centuries. Pathological starvation and binging are arguably a non-idiomatic and paradoxical language employed by women – and more recently by men – to express their deepest feelings, claim their identity and protest about their allocated socio-cultural roles. Since before the medicalization of these pathologies in the late nineteenth century through to the present day, writers across a variety of languages and cultures have depicted the complex meanings of anorexia, bulimia, binge eating and troubled relationships with food and bodies.# This cross-cultural book project seeks to explore the fictional portrayal of these self-destructive yet paradoxically sometimes self-empowering behaviours in recent women’s writing. Proposals for 7000 word essays are welcome on post-1968 French, German, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese women’s writing. Comparative literature essays are also sought. Please send your abstract of 250 words in English, together with a brief biography of 100 words to Petra Bagley ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>), Kathryn Robson ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>) and Francesca Calamita ([log in to unmask]<mailto:[log in to unmask]>u) by 30 January 2015; acceptance will be notified by 30 March 2015 and articles in English will be due by 30 October 2015. Please do not hesitate to contact me for any questions you may have. Regards, Francesca Calamita Dr Francesca Calamita Lecturer in Italian, Department of Spanish, Italian and Portuguese, University of Virginia, P.O. Box 400777, 466 New Cabell Hall, Charlottesville VA 22904, USA CCWW/IMLR Visiting Fellow 2013-14