Call for Papers

Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association
Annual Conference – Thursday, November 5 - Saturday, November 7, 2009
Hilton Boston Logan Airport

Special Session: G.K. Chesterton
Jill Kriegel
Florida Atlantic University

The Mid-Atlantic Popular and American Culture Association (MAPACA) invites
academics, graduate and undergraduate students, independent scholars, and
artists to submit papers for the annual conference as listed above. An
inclusive professional organization dedicated to the study of Popular
Culture and American Culture in all their multidisciplinary manifestations,
MAPACA hosts presentations in a wide range of areas. Please send by e-mail
a one-page abstract to the appropriate area chair by June 15, 2009. Include
a brief bio with your proposal. Single papers, as well as 3- or 4-person
panels and roundtables, are encouraged. Sliding scale registration fees
apply.

Click here for conference information.
More info.Special Session on G. K. Chesterton, MAPACA 2009
Area Chair: Jill Kriegel, Florida Atlantic University

jill1227@bellsouth.net

G. K. Chesterton, certainly one of the most voluminous writers of the early twentieth century, was well-known for his work as a literary and social critic, a novelist, a poet, and Catholic apologist. As a forerunner of the reawakening of Chesterton interest, Dale Ahlquist, president of the American Chesterton Society, refers to G. K. Chesterton as “the apostle of common sense,” for he was a man eager to shepherd the people of his time, a heyday of secular humanism and the rise of postmodernism. His gifted use of paradox has the unique ability to evoke smiles and awaken faith. His famous debates with George Bernard Shaw and H. G. Wells created an intense but friendly and respectful forum for discussion of opposing views on science, materialism, and religion. Without doubt, Chesterton can engage equally well in such discussions with thinkers of our day.
In his literary criticism, Chesterton salutes those Victorian writers, such as Charles Dickens, who so clearly delineate between good and evil, promote the necessity for social and moral change, and portray the joy ever-present in the company of absolute truths. These same values are evident in his apologetic works, such as Orthodoxy, and his fiction, such as The Man Who Was Thursday. Such literary contributions bestow us with lifelong gifts, for in the early 20th Century, they supported and encouraged the enormously influential works of, among others, C.S. Lewis and J.R. R. Tolkien. Indeed, Chesterton's work enthusiastically encourages dialogue across centuries. This Chesterton panel eagerly invites proposals for papers of comparative literature as well as those of social and cultural commentary.