"GBS: Global Bernard Shaw"

Special Shaw Session at the Modern Language Association Convention

Los Angeles, January 6-9 of 2011 

Deadline for abstracts is March 15, 2010

Zoo. Why should you travel for pleasure! Can you not enjoy yourself at home?

The Elderly Gentleman. I wish to see the world.

—“Tragedy of an Elderly Gentleman,” Back to Methuselah

An international celebrity, world traveler, and global citizen, Shaw was never at a loss for words on the matter of the world he lived in. This special session seeks papers that think through the entailments of “GBS” as Global Bernard Shaw. Topics may include (but are not limited to):

· gender and international feminisms

· colonialism and postcolonialism (from Ireland to India and beyond)

· cosmopolitanism

· the “transatlantic” Shaw

· nationalism and transnationalism

· geopolitics and world order studies

· conflict, war, and peace

· neoliberalism and free-market capitalism

· globalization and modernization

· “empire,” “multitude,” and “commonwealth” (Hardt & Negri)

· international Marxist, communist, and socialist movements

· religion and political theology (liberation theology, Zionism, Islamic radicalism, etc.)

· cross-cultural performance

· influence, appropriation, and adaptation

· Shaw as world literature (canonicity, translation, “the world republic of letters”)

· Shaw as world traveler

Please send via email attachment a short CV and 250-word abstract to Charles Joseph Del Dotto (cjd@duke.edu) no later than 15 March 2010.

THE PROGRAM FOR “GBS: Global Bernard Shaw”

Specific Date, Time, and Place TBA

Presiding: Charles J. Del Dotto, Duke University

1. TBA

2. TBA

3. TBA