Panel for the 2018 Modernist Studies Association's Convention

Writing in the English magazine The Poster in 1899, French critic Maurice Demeur declared: "In the course of my studies of pictorial placards, I have often had cause to deplore in the art magazines the almost entire absence of comment on mural decorative art in Spain. Hardly anything, it would seem, is written about Spanish posters and colour prints. What is the reason of this neglect of so characteristic and remarkable a decorative impulse? . . . I am surprised to see that Boudet in his book Les Affiches Etrangeres, Sponsel in his clever publication Das Moderne Plakat, and many other writers have entirely ignored the subject. Does this arise from lack of knowledge or negligence? In any case it is unpardonable."€ Ongoing geographical, disciplinary, and vertical (high/popular culture) expansions in the field of modernist studies make Demeur's remarks particularly relevant. This panel seeks to echo their sentiment and invites papers that engage (the critical exclusion of) posters produced in peripheral territories. Can the history of posters constitute a fruitful locus from which to investigate and critique the construction of hegemonic Modernism? What critical vantage points may the study of the formation of graphic canons offer over that of literary ones? What poster traditions have postcolonial, transnational, or global approaches failed to include? And what does this cultural production teach us about modernisms and modernities? 

This is a call for papers for a non-guaranteed proposed panel for the 2018 Modernist Studies Association's Convention to be held in Columbus, OH (11/8 to 11/11).  

Please send a 200-300 word abstract and a short bio to Carles Ferrando Valero (cferrandovalero at ucmerced.edu) by April 1, 2018. 

Contact Info: 

Carles Ferrando Valero, PhD
School of Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts
University of California, Merced
5200 N Lake Rd, Merced, CA 95343