MLA Commons | GS Nonfiction Prose | Activity https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/nonfiction-prose/ Activity feed for the group, GS Nonfiction Prose. Sat, 04 Apr 2026 03:58:33 -0400 https://buddypress.org/?v=10.6.0 en-US 30 hourly 2 7012919d9da8c2e22563a1e67983ff5b Shashi Bhusan Nayak started the topic Call for Chapters – Scripting Selves: New Directions in Life Writing in the forum GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/nonfiction-prose/forum/topic/call-for-chapters-scripting-selves-new-directions-in-life-writing-7/ Wed, 05 Mar 2025 17:24:36 -0500 Scripting Selves: New Directions in Life Writing
Editors: P. Muralidhar Sharma & Shashibhusan Nayak

Until recently, Life Writing has emerged as a loose critical label encompassing a variety of genres, including biographies, autobiographies, memoirs, letters, and dairies. The later decades of the 20th century, in particular, have witnessed a surge…[Read more]

]]> 0 22435003a18fb33feda64c6a9915c33f Leigh A. Neithardt started the topic Membership Suggestions for 2025 Forum Delegate Election  in the forum GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/nonfiction-prose/forum/topic/membership-suggestions-for-2025-forum-delegate-election-8/ Thu, 19 Dec 2024 16:57:12 -0500 Hello!

The next election for this forum’s Delegate Assembly representative will be held in the fall of 2025, and the forum’s executive committee will take up the matter of nominations for this election when it meets in January 2025. Though the executive committee is responsible for making nominations, it is required to nominate at least one can…[Read more]

]]> 0 d6956d847fb1616124a4fa541d1c149b Hania A.M. Nashef deposited The City is Closing in: Raja Shehadeh’s Going Home Searches for a Homeland in the group GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1893022/ Sat, 20 Jul 2024 03:00:52 -0400 Growing constrictions and suffocating borders, due to an unrelenting occupation, continue to plague the lives of Palestinians living in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Raja Shehadeh’s 2019 book, Going Home, illustrates how this stifling existence has only worsened with time. His work provides a chronology of events and highlights changes w…[Read more]

]]> 0 fbf6082758700754869dd082b0861bbb Hania A.M. Nashef deposited "Testimonies of War: Reportages by Samar Yazbek and Atef Abu Saif" in the group GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1817372/ Thu, 13 Oct 2022 04:00:13 -0400 War diaries are often written under duress, and are attempts at documenting events as they unfold, or narrating stories of how people survive under trying circumstances. She argues that conditions of war under which authors produce their work dictate the form itself. When an author’s life is under threat, when safety is compromised, m…[Read more]

]]> 0 2603f1e2025b0626c0e9290873a592d1 Shashi Bhusan Nayak started the topic Call for Book Reviewers in the discussion GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/nonfiction-prose/forum/topic/call-for-book-reviewers-2/ Tue, 01 Mar 2022 07:08:55 -0500 iEnglish Journal is considering proposals for book reviews and review essays. iEnglish expects potential reviewers to have received their Ph.D. in English or a related field, or to have evidence of relevant publications or expertise.

All prospective reviewers must adhere to our ethics and conflict of interest policy: they are expected to not…[Read more]

]]> 0 848bf450c8c3e6b656f9ab72c85d4f6a Hania A.M. Nashef deposited Against a reading of a sacred landscape: Raja Shehadeh rewrites the Palestinian presence in Palestinian Walks in the group GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1718089/ Thu, 26 Nov 2020 03:49:15 -0500 ABSTRACT

In his introduction to Palestinian Walks, Raja Shehadeh remarks that in spite of the great number of travelers to Palestine, travel literature, for the most part, willfully ignored the living experience and existence of the land’s inhabitants. Often, Palestine was the imaginary place that was continuously invented to confirm r…[Read more]

]]> 0 53a8882351043b29cfdeceed1c7ba1bd Janet Ruth Heller started the topic Call for Papers: Michigan College English Association Conference Oct. 17-18, '20 in the discussion GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/nonfiction-prose/forum/topic/call-for-papers-michigan-college-english-association-conference-oct-17-18-20/ Wed, 02 Sep 2020 05:51:59 -0400 Theme:  Coping with Change Guest Speaker & Workshop Facilitator: Laura Apol, Lansing poet laureate Location:  on-line, through Zoom (as hosted by Michigan State University writing faculty)

Since our last conference in October 2019, COVID-19 has struck, changing our lives and disproportionately affecting people of color. Then there was the<…[Read more]

]]> 0 ffd8c24c51263e422424545e22ff836f Nicole B. Wallack started the topic CFP: Reminder--Edinburgh Companion to the Essay in the discussion GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/nonfiction-prose/forum/topic/cfp-reminder-edinburgh-companion-to-the-essay/ Wed, 12 Jun 2019 17:38:36 -0400 Call for Proposed Chapters: The Edinburgh Companion to the Essay [Extended Deadline]Overview:

The Edinburgh Companion to the Essay provides an overview of the theories, histories, contexts and forms of the essay as well as of current debates around the genre and its extensions. The co-editors seek brief (300-word) proposals for chapters that p…[Read more]

]]> 0 770c8c6f6e2402f970d293c5e103f303 George Prokhorov deposited WHAT SORT OF JEW DOSTOEVSKY LIKED AND DISLIKED: A NARRATIVE OF A LOVE-HATE RELATIONSHIP in the group GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1622883/ Sun, 04 Nov 2018 03:50:24 -0500 In his fiction, journalism and letters, Dostoevsky recurrently mentions ethnicity of his protagonists. Russians, Poles, Englishmen, Germans, Turks, Greeks etc. never act as individuals with their personal life but rather as ‘carriers’ of some national idea. Amidst the nations represented in Dostoevsky’s oeuvre, there are some Jews. The fashi…[Read more]

]]> 0 aae053574ea89b277c0d9d0ec9f1f575 Carol Zuses started the topic Membership Suggestions for 2019 Forum Delegate Election in the discussion Nonfiction Prose Studies, Excluding Biography and Autobiography https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/nonfiction-prose/forum/topic/membership-suggestions-for-2019-forum-delegate-election-9/ Fri, 21 Sep 2018 12:29:49 -0400 The next election for this forum’s Delegate Assembly representative will be held in the fall of 2019, and the forum’s executive committee will take up the matter of nominations for this election when it meets during the January 2019 convention in Chicago. Though the executive committee is responsible for making nominations, it is required to nom…[Read more]

]]> 0 22b3ea19a49b1bd5b849ac88c7058d65 Hania Nashef deposited A dialogue beyond the nation-state: Darwish's Mural and Shehadeh's A Rift in Time: Travels with my Ottoman Uncle in the group GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1598707/ Sat, 27 Jan 2018 03:49:20 -0500 Even though postcolonial theory has helped in the critique of non-western texts, it has for the most part failed to engage with the Arab region and its literatures in spite of Edward Said’s seminal book, Orientalism. Robert Young argues that postcolonial theory since its inception has been concerned with the politics of invisibility, striving to m…[Read more]

]]> 0 9d713a6484b054c9459235d423e3c80e George Prokhorov deposited A MIXTURE OF PERFORMANCE AND NARRATIVITY, OR TRAVELOGUE AS A GENRE in the group GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1589069/ Mon, 20 Nov 2017 05:43:14 -0500 In the article, we trace some aspects of development of eventivity and narrativity in Medieval and early Modern Era travel literature. Dissecting episodes of Sir Thomas Smithes Voiage and Entertainment in Rushia (1605), A Travel of Anonimous Citizen of Suzdal to The Council of Florence (15th century), Russian Primary Chronicle (12th century), and…[Read more]

]]> 0 07103a33e541e3f3c6a03fa7553abef1 David Squires deposited Outlawry: Ida B. Wells and Lynch Law in the group GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/1580062/ Tue, 29 Aug 2017 20:09:58 -0400 This essay demonstrates how Lynch Law suspended normative criminal law and undermined constitutional amendments made after the US Civil War. Focusing on the period between Reconstruction and the rise of Jim Crow, the essay argues that “outlawry” provides the necessary juridical concept for understanding how a tradition of popular sovereignty wor…[Read more]

]]> 0 476226d396e2df14d2a66bff5489fa8f Howard Horwitz started the topic CFP-MLA Session 2018 in the discussion Nonfiction Prose Studies, Excluding Biography and Autobiography https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/nonfiction-prose/forum/topic/cfp-mla-session-2018/ Mon, 06 Feb 2017 18:11:11 -0500 Religion in American Public Discourse

Competitive session co-sponsored by the Religion and Literature Forum and the Forum on Nonfiction Prose.  Religion has long figured in the public discourse of the United States.  During election season in particular, religious issues figure in campaign and more generally political discourse.  President Do…[Read more]

]]> 0 a6890bdb78864fc400d1c383e54d005b Hania Nashef deposited Challenging the myth of "a land without a people": Mahmoud Darwishs Journal of an Ordinary Grief and In the Presence of Absence in the group GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/552896/ Fri, 28 Oct 2016 17:16:05 -0400 In his address at the Madrid Peace Conference, the Head of the Palestinian Delegation, Dr Haidar Abdul-Shafi challenged the persistent myth that has defined Palestinian existence for at least a century by saying: “For too long the Palestinian people have gone unheeded, silenced […] we have been victimized by the myth of ‘a land witho…[Read more]

]]> 0 87b1d2a899a536efd82d179db8463caa Aleksondra Hultquist deposited Breaking Open the Conversation on Delarivier Manley in the group GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/552737/ Wed, 26 Oct 2016 15:55:27 -0400 This, the first critical collection on Delarivier Manley, revisits the most heated discussions and adds new perspectives that will change the conversation on the foremost woman writer in the age of Queen Anne. This compilation demonstrates the wide range of thinking about Manley’s literary production and significance. While contributors r…[Read more]

]]> 0 548568e8df78ccdf66d92bbf856fd745 Brooke Carlson deposited TWITAGOGY: WRITING, INFORMATION LITERACY, WRITTEN COMMUNICATION, and 21st CENTURY PEDAGOGY in the group GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/552565/ Mon, 24 Oct 2016 20:55:38 -0400 Technology is transforming twenty-first century education. Central to the study of English Literature is critical thinking and writing, and with the advent of digital texts (along with the precursor – digitized writing) the space of the discipline continues to expand. One way to get at what is being done in the study of literature is to explore…[Read more]

]]> 0 dad3126a5c9a1dd7fbfa88f5e62b6e81 Hania Nashef deposited Challenging the myth of “a land without a people”: Mahmoud Darwish’s Journal of an Ordinary Grief and In the Presence of Absence in the group GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/552377/ Thu, 20 Oct 2016 16:26:59 -0400 n his address at the Madrid Peace Conference, the Head of the Palestinian Delegation, Dr Haidar Abdul-Shafi challenged the persistent myth that has defined Palestinian existence for at least a century by saying: “For too long the Palestinian people have gone unheeded, silenced […] we have been victimized by the myth of ‘a land without a peopl…[Read more]

]]> 0 2043bfa398b774e85d1e7924daf55de7 Marielle R. Risse deposited Verstehen/ Einfühlen in Arabian Sands (1959): Wilfred Thesiger as Traveler and Anthropologist in the group GS Nonfiction Prose https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/538010/ Fri, 08 Jan 2016 08:02:37 -0500 Using Geertz’s Verstehen/ Einfühlen distinction, this essay begins with an overview of the travel writing and anthropological work about Oman, concentrating on the southern region of Dhofar. The author then situates Wilfred Thesiger’s classic Arabian Sands (1959) within these two genres as an example of a writer who is able to show unde…[Read more]

]]> 0 7d20edee9f774979311392f6ca2b4b87 Nicky Agate started the topic Literary Trivia Quiz in Austin in the discussion Nonfiction Prose Studies, Excluding Biography and Autobiography https://mla.hcommons.org/groups/nonfiction-prose/forum/topic/literary-trivia-quiz-in-austin-4/ Thu, 31 Dec 2015 15:10:27 -0500 I’d like to invite any members of this group attending the 2016 convention to participate in the first ever Commons literary trivia quiz, which will take place next Thursday night at the JW Marriott. It promises to be unabashedly nerdy, but fun too! A cash bar and prizes will be available.

Space is limited, so please reserve your spot at  [Read more]

]]> 0 ac5934759bf184aae14291e1075cf1f8 Janet Ruth Heller posted an update in the group GS Nonfiction Prose: Dear Colleagues, Joyce Meier of Michigan State University […] https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/271007/ Wed, 22 Jul 2015 04:33:01 -0400 Dear Colleagues,

Joyce Meier of Michigan State University and I are editing a collection of scholarly essays on the theme of Voice and Empowerment in English studies. Cambridge Scholars Publishing is interested in publishing this book.

As faculty members, we try to empower our students and to encourage them to develop their own voices. We also…[Read more]

]]> 0 ef8999a3894320ac3fd696ad1cb49a25 Janet Ruth Heller posted an update in the group GS Nonfiction Prose: Dear Colleagues, Joyce Meier of Michigan State University […] https://mla.hcommons.org/activity/p/270964/ Wed, 22 Jul 2015 04:18:56 -0400 Dear Colleagues,

Joyce Meier of Michigan State University and I are editing a collection of scholarly essays on the theme of Voice and Empowerment in English studies. Cambridge Scholars Publishing is interested in publishing this book.

As faculty members, we try to empower our students and to encourage them to develop their own voices. We also…[Read more]

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