Please consider proposing a paper to the MLA 2020 Panel, \”Beyond the Border: Land, Ocean, Air.\”
A range of classification schemes proliferated in the long eighteenth century, from casta classifications in the Americas (Carrera, Imagining Identity) to racial, national, and moral classifications of human beings in Europe (Kant, Observations on the Feeling of the Beautiful and Sublime) and scientific taxonomies of human, plant, animal, and mineral kingdoms that were applied throughout the pre-1800 world (Skott, “Human Taxonomies”). Around the world, diverse writers, historical actors, and imperial agents around the world sought to define the borders between and among human and non-human bodies. Building from the MLA 2019 panel, “Decolonizing the Oceans in Early American Writing,” organized by the LLC Early American Forum, and as part of the CLCS 18th-Century panel for MLA 2020, \”Beyond the Border: Human, Animal, Plant,\” this panel seeks papers that analyze how eighteenth-century thinkers and doers understood the relationship between earth, water, and air. Papers that consider cultural, economic, philosophical, religious, and scientific attempts to map these domains are especially welcome. Co-sponsored by LLC Early American and CLCS 18th-C.
Please send abstracts of 200-250 words to Martha Rojas (martharojas@uri.edu) and Allison Bigelow (amb8fk@virginia.edu) by Feb. 28 2019. Questions and comments should be directed to Marty and Allison. Thanks!
