The Writing/Reading Jeremiah group invites proposals on the following topics for 2011.
1) For a panel entitled, “How Do Feminist and Postcolonial Perspectives Change the Genre ‘Scholarly Commentary’? -- The Book of Jeremiah as a Test Case”: papers that address feminist or postcolonial method in the writing of commentary, with special reference to issues or texts in Jeremiah. For example, papers might articulate challenges and possibilities regarding how a commentator can address feminist or postcolonial issues in Jeremiah, reflect on ways in which commentary writing complicates feminist or postcolonial interpretation, or engage issues involved in the construction of the Jeremiah commentator's voice and authority.
2) For a panel on violence and aesthetics in Jeremiah. Violent and sexualized imagery has always been a part of religious representation -- not least in the writings of the biblical prophets. This panel will explore the relation/function of violence and aesthetics in the book of Jeremiah, and in particular, the aestheticization of violence. Papers are invited that analyze the reporting or depiction of violent acts in heightened prose or poetry in Jeremiah (such as the OANs), or that use Jeremiah as a "site" at which to address one or more of these questions: What is the connection between violence and art? Does violence inspire art? Does faith inspire violent imagery? Why does art chose to depict violence? How do depictions of violence function? Does art redeem violence?
3) For an open session: papers on any interpretive issue presented by the book of Jeremiah. Priority will be given to proposals that demonstrate a hermeneutical attentiveness that moves beyond, or seeks to complicate, traditional historicist interpretive paradigms.