“Rebuild the Ruin, Mend Defect”: Emersonian Reconstructions
C 19: “Reconstructions,” March 31-April 2, 2022, Coral Gables, Florida
Joseph Urbas (Université Bordeaux Montaigne), Tim Sommer (Ruprecht-Karls-Universität Heidelberg)
We are seeking contributions for a proposed panel on the theme of reconstruction in Emerson’s writings. The term may of course refer to the historical period and its aftermath but may also be more broadly construed as renewal, revision, reinvention, repair, remaking, transformation, or beginning afresh, whether in society or in solitude. The things reconstructed may be selves, careers, institutions, art forms, geographical regions, or worlds, to name just a few possibilities. Papers may also want to consider what cannot be rebuilt—e.g. “This shining hour is an edifice/Which the Omnipotent cannot rebuild,” as Emerson wrote in a manuscript poem—and how that impossibility affects the conduct of life.
Please address a 250-word abstract and a brief CV to both Joseph Urbas and Tim Sommer by August 15, 2021.
Please share widely and feel free to email us with any questions.