[Badgirlz-list] Women and Evil

Call for Papers – Women and Evil

The Women’s Studies Session of The South Atlantic
Modern
Language Association (SAMLA) invites proposals for
paper
presentations at the annual meeting of the South
Atlantic Modern
Language Association (SAMLA) to be held November
12-14, 2004,
at the Hotel Roanoke and Convention Center in Roanoke,
Virginia.

Deadline for abstract submission: 3/31/04

         If one subject has fascinated human beings
since the
beginning of time—it is sex.  But if there are two
such topics, evil is
a close runner-up.  How people, the very same capable
of
experiencing love, loyalty, and beauty, can also rape,
torture, and
murder their fellow human beings has intrigued and
troubled both
the wise and naïve.  Philosophers and theologians have
debated
evil—its definition and significance—for millennia. 
And yet today,
even despite its prolific public appearance in
political discourse
after September 11th, we are no closer to
understanding this
grave topic.  If evil exists, if it is timeless, if it
is important,
then
surely this conversation should not be left to
right-wing ideologues
who might use it as a code word to inspire morally
questionable
projects of their own.  Nor is it likely in our
interest to get rid of
the
word altogether, relegating it to the discard pile of
culturally-
constructed concepts—would this not leave us morally
afloat,
unable to make any significant pronouncements about
our ethical
universe?
         This panel is interested in the problem of
evil from the
perspective of women and feminists: groups intimately
affiliated
with evil’s material image, but equally historically
silent on the
topic.  From Eve, Lilith, Medea, Medusa, and countless
fictional
stepmothers, to Mata Hari, New England “witches,”
femme fatales,
the developing phenomena of female suicide bombers,
and
Aileen Wuornos (a rare example of female serial
killers), “evil”
women have fascinated the world.  Women in general,
and their
bodies in particular, have also been aligned with evil
and sin (and
pollution, or in Kristeva’s language, “the abject”).
          Proposals should address one or more of the
following
topics and questions:  What is (or isn’t) feminist
evil?  What
contributions can feminist theory bring to preexisting
arguments
about evil (philosophical, theological, political,
etc.)?  Can
feminism explain why there isn’t a female Hitler, for
example?  Or
is there?  What is the relationship between feminist
icons and
evilness?  Why might feminists have an interest
(discursive,
rhetorical, activist) in distinguishing evil from,
say, wickedness or
weakness?  By contrast, why might feminists want to
dismantle/
deconstruct the idea of good versus evil, as they have
done with
other binaries?  Why should feminism care about evil
at all?  What
historical/materialist circumstances have precluded
(or prompted)
evil from women?  How are discourses of evil and woman
taken
up in literature, film, popular media, politics,
theology, and
philosophy?  Can evil ever be good or politically
radical or
constructive, and if so, should feminism try to
reclaim evil for its
own revolutionary/productive aims?

        Papers may (and are encouraged to) deal with
specific texts
and/or the question of women and evil in general, but
they should
also endeavor to offer a feminist definition of evil
and/or
specifically challenge this category of inquiry.
Please email a 300-500 word abstract and a brief
professional
biography by midnight, March 31, 2004, to:

Eugenie Brinkema, subject line “SAMLA 2004”, at:
brinkema@???; please also cc: Erin Sells at
esells@???.


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