Welcome to SAAS

Call For Papers for Our Next Conference

"'Fear Narratives' and their Role/Use in the United States"

PANEL 16

16) "Fear Narratives of the American West: Beyond the Geography of Hope"
Panel Chair: David Río Raigadas, Universidad del País Vasco (UPV/EHU)
E-mail: david.rio@ehu.eus  

This panel aims to explore fear narratives that challenge or complicate the archetypal association of the American West with hope, opportunity, and regeneration. Papers in this panel may address the representation of fear in western narratives from different theoretical and critical perspectives and deal with a variety of forms, including literature, film, music, comics, television, photography, and other visual arts. Particular attention will be paid to the ways in which fear is constructed in contemporary western narratives where what Wallace Stegner termed "the geography of hope" becomes a land of anxiety, insecurity, stress, and vulnerability.

Topics may include the fear of the "other" (racism, migration issues…), the fear of the unknown, issues related to climate change, the risks of the nuclear West, the fear of physical danger (violence, crime, terrorism, disease…), gender issues, economic vulnerability, class exclusion, local and regional identity, and other types of anxiety expressed in western American narratives

GUIDELINES FOR PARTICIPANTS

Abstracts of Proposals are to be e-mailed directly to the chair of the selected panel using this form. The deadline for submitting abstracts is October 15, 2020. Panel chairs are expected to accept/reject proposals and have panels set up by November 15.

Non-members of SAAS (of all nationalities) are welcome to participate in the conference, but will be required to pay membership dues for one year as well as the conference registration fee. Members of ASA (American Studies Association), AISNA (Associazione Italiana di Studi Nor-Americani), APEAA (Portuguese Association for Anglo-American Studies) and HELAAS (Hellenic Association for American Studies) need only pay the conference registration fee.

Further guideliness for participants can be found here.