Our Doris Lessing Society Session at MLA 2021

Greetings Members and Friends,

We are happy to announce that “Through the Hard Times: Outlasting Tyranny in Speculative Fiction,” the Doris Lessing Society’s session for the January 2021 Convention of the Modern Language Association (MLA), has been selected by the current MLA vice-president Judith Butler for inclusion in this convention’s theme, “Persistence.”

Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the MLA 2021 will be a virtual convention. We hope that those of you who are MLA members will register and attend our session–details below.

We will also be holding a virtual business meeting for the Society. Details will be forthcoming.

541.
Through the Hard Times: Outlasting Tyranny in Speculative Fiction
Saturday, 9 January 5:15 PM-6:30 PM EST

Key Words: Speculative Fiction, Doris Lessing, Hard Times, Resistance, Persistence

Organizer: Doris Lessing Society

Presentations

1. Continuance against Oppression: Le Guin and Lessing
Sandra Singer (U of Guelph)

2. Resistance in Ambiguity: Delaney’s Trouble on Triton and Le Guin’s The Dispossessed
Jess Flarity (U of New Hampshire, Durham)

3. Speculative Fiction as Re-vision and Resistance in Lessing, Atwood, Butler, and St. John Mandel
Susan Watkins (Leeds Beckett U)

4. Lessing and Butler: Learning On the Way
Linda Weinhouse (Community C of Baltimore County, MD)

Presiding
Josna Rege (Worcester State U)

Proposals Deadline Extended: Doris Lessing Society Sessions at MLA 2021

Dear Doris Lessing Scholars,

In view of the coronavirus, we are extending the submissions deadline for proposals for the Doris Lessing Society sessions at the 2021 MLA Convention to Monday, March 23, 2020. Please find below the CFPs for the two sessions the Society hopes to sponsor at the MLA, to be held in Toronto, Canada, Jan 7-10, 2021. As an Allied Organization of the MLA we are guaranteed one session and can propose a second. The second is designed to fit the theme of the convention which, in 2021, will be Persistence.

1. Roundtable: Doris Lessing’s Global Readership
   Thirty years after Claire Sprague’s collection,In Pursuit of Doris Lessing: Nine Nations Reading, Lessing’s readership is more globally dispersed and more locally situated. Inviting 300-word abstracts for 10-minute presentations in micro/macro, cultural/transcultural frames.
   Deadline for submissions: Monday, 23 March 2020[Note extended deadline]
   Josna Rege, Worcester State U (jrege@worcester.edu)
2. Through the Hard Times: Outlasting Tyranny in Speculative Fiction
   Doris Lessing, Atwood, Coetzee, Butler, and Le Guin, among others, show us what persistence looks like and what to preserve until the walls come down. Comparative papers welcomed. Please send 300-word abstract with short bio.
   Deadline for submissions: Monday, 23 March 2020 [Note extended deadline]
   Josna Rege, Worcester State U (jrege@worcester.edu)

Calls for Papers: DLS sessions at MLA Toronto, 2021

Dear Doris Lessing Scholars,
I am copying below calls for papers for two sessions the Society is proposing for the next MLA convention, which will be held in Toronto, Canada, Jan 7-10, 2021. As an Allied Organization of the MLA we are guaranteed one session and can propose a second. The second is often designed to fit the theme of the convention, which, in 2021, will be Persistence. 

Please write to me with any questions. 

Thank you, 

Josna Rege

Current President, DLS

Doris Lessing Society: Call for Papers for two sessions
2021 Modern Language Association Annual Convention
Toronto, 7–10 January 2021
Please write to Josna Rege (email address below) with any questions. 

1. Roundtable: Doris Lessing’s Global Readership
Thirty years after Claire Sprague’s collection, In Pursuit of Doris Lessing: Nine Nations Reading, Lessing’s readership is more globally dispersed and more locally situated. Inviting 300-word abstracts for 10-minute presentations in micro/macro, cultural/transcultural frames.
Deadline for submissions: Monday, 16 March 2020
Josna Rege, Worcester State U (jrege@worcester.edu)

2. Through the Hard Times: Outlasting Tyranny in Speculative Fiction
Doris Lessing, Atwood, Coetzee, Butler, and Le Guin, among others, show us what persistence looks like and what to preserve until the walls come down. Comparative papers welcomed. Please send 300-word abstract with short bio.
Deadline for submissions: Monday, 16 March 2020
Josna Rege, Worcester State U (jrege@worcester.edu )

Doris Lessing at 100: one month away

“Lessing at 100: The Writer’s Quest,” a conference marking Doris Lessing’s centennial, is taking place at the University of East Anglia next month! A full slate of papers and several special events, with appearances by authors such as Margaret Drabble, are scheduled. Registration to attend the conference is open through 16 August. See the website for more information: http://dorislessing100.org/